Using social media for business has become a mainstream way of marketing, and many non profit organizations use social media as well to get their message out. Should churches also be considering becoming up to date in communicating their message? Michele Beardon wrote an interesting article for the Tampa Tribune this week about how some churches are using social media.

Here is an extract:

 

Facebook is the “new front porch” for congregations, says Ed Stetzer, president of LifeWay Research, a Nashville-based nonprofit that focuses on the Christian community. If you’re not using it, he says, “shame on you.”

“And the same for Twitter,” he says. “Pastors who lead churches without a social media presence might as well be talking in a sanctuary without a microphone, without an audience.”

In a LifeWay study published last year, 47 percent of 1,003 Protestant churches surveyed actively use Facebook — for everything from interacting with congregants to distributing information to fostering member-to-member relationships. Typically, large churches (with more than 500 members in average worship attendance) are the biggest users, and they tend to be in bigger cities or suburbs.

What about the other half not yet engaged in the popular social networking service? Stetzer isn’t surprised that some pastors aren’t so enthusiastic about it.

“Social media is a conversation. Clergy are accustomed to making pronouncements,” he says. “Now you put yourself in a place where people can challenge you in a public space. That can make some uncomfortable. But they’ve got to learn to deal with it.”

 

Read more of this article

The use of social media and technology in the church was also featured as a TV report.

The Relevant Church actively are embracing technology.For their Easter outreach event this year Relevant Church created a website, video and active social media promotion strategy. I think that there video introducing the church gives people a good idea what going to their church would be like and perhaps dispels some assumptions about what church is like

What Is Relevant Church from Relevant Church on Vimeo.

Do you think that the church should be using social media more actively?