Digital Evangelism Issues

When you hear the word ‘church’, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? If you are like me, then you may think of your church building or some mega-church that stands out in your mind. If this was the case, and the church was just a building, there would be no place for social media as part of the church.

Thankfully, the true meaning of ‘church’ is the body of Christ and its goal should always be to reach the lost and care for those less fortunate. When the average American spends 23% of online time on social networks, a vital part of the church outreach should be interacting with the community through social media. What does a church interacting through social media look like?

1. Use social media to promote your church – By promote your church, I don’t mean post about how much better your church is than the one down the road. Promote your church by letting the community get involved through mission works, youth events, or sharing snippets of sermon podcasts.

2. Grow new relationships – If a first time visitor comes to your church, do you reach out to them and try to build a relationship? Treat your church’s social media the same way! Reach out to new fans or followers, invite them to visit, or perhaps just ask if you can pray for them.

3. Share the Gospel – At the end of the day the church should be fulfilling the Great Commission. If you believe God is truly in control of everything, then why not have faith that He can use social media to bring people to Him? While social media can be used as a starting point, I do want to emphasize that I believe it is important to become a member of a local church where you can grow your faith.

4. Find new community needs – Remember that your church can use social media to proactively-not just reactively. Ask your fans or followers for prayer requests and other needs within the community. By reaching out to your fans you will not only find new needs, but will also be able to show the love of Christ through the church.

Conclusion: If your church is part of the 40% of churches that don’t use any social media, I encourage you to start today! Not only can social media help to grow your church body, but it can help grow the body of Christ. Be personal when posting, grow new relationships, and be an integral part of your community on a daily basis, not just on Sunday!

This is a guest post from Michael Cornett, the founder of Church Website Design.Co, a Christian web design company that helps churches share the Gospel through websites and free social media training. Michael can be reached at support@churchwebsitedesign.co or on Twitter @website4church

• More resources on social networking
• Churches and social networking
• Please share your church’s story of using social media on our Comments section below

In this short slideshow, Alvaro González-Alorda suggests that college teaching methods must change, in our new digital communication culture. Does this also apply to the way the church teaches stuff – at local church or college level? Add your thoughts using the Comments link below.

March 13 sees the publication of a very significant book, available in paperback and Kindle:

Viral: How Social Networking Is Poised to Ignite Revival
Len Sweet
Waterbrook Press
229 pages paperback
ISBN 978-0-307-45915-2

What’s it about?

About 10-15 years ago, you and I were relocated from our comfortable familiar home to a new land. Not necessarily unwillingly, like the Jewish exiles taken to Babylon. Not necessarily a worse new homeland. Some of us ran ahead. But others left trails of a resistant struggle. A few may have barely noticed they’ve been moved at all.

It was … the huge move from print communication culture to digital. Len Sweet styles those of us who grew up in a print culture as ‘Gutenbergers’, and those who grew up in, or have whole-heartedly adopted digital, as ‘Googlers’. It’s an apt and helpful simplification for a social revolution as far-reaching as Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press.

His book is probably the best and most insightful explanation of these two communication cultures, the tension between them, and the huge implications for Christians, the church and especially the retelling of the good news. We just cannot continue doing the stuff we used to do, because it won’t work any more. So this book really is mission critical.

And – there’s a clue in the title – he believes that online relationships and social networking can share the good news powerfully in ways there were never possible before. It is likely to be the most significant book on digital ministry to be published all year.

For this reason, it is the chosen book recommendation for Digital Outreach Month.

You can preview 22 pages of the book below, using the arrows at the bottom right of the frame below:

A look back at a selection of DEI posts people liked…

Free stuff for editors and webmasters – sources of free evangelistic content (including Easter resources).

Grab the attention of passers-by – ideas for church signage.

Ebooks for church ministry – free ebooks and resources from Yvon Prehn (including Easter resources) and Bob Franquiz.

What does Europe really believe? – stats and maps.

Latest Web Evangelism Bulletin

And if you missed it – with the opportunity to win a free Len Sweet book and iPhone evangelistic app, the latest Web Evangelism Bulletin is now online, covering:

• Win iPhone app – Talking About Jesus is incredible conversation starter.
• News from Puerto Rico – Spanish language outreach and phone app.
• Conferences – coming this year.
• Things to do on IE Day – creative ideas for your church.
• Mobile phone ministry – mobile changes everything.
• Win new Len Sweet book – VIRAL book publishes in March.
• Social media – great resources.
• Watch Oscar winner – animation short.
• Tailend fun – our usual funnies.

Get a summary Bulletin email from Feedburner every two weeks.

Latest incarnation of Erik Qualman’s Socialnomics ‘state of social media’ video. (Follow his blog at Socialnomics.net.) It’s also available to download so you can show it in meetings or seminars to explain just how far digital communication extends.

Social networking means ‘people’ and ‘relational’. The potential to share good news worldwide is immense and growing. At the same time, we must not fall in love with the medium. It’s all about people!

• Free PDF ebook: The social media Handbook for churches.

• Many mobile subscribers across Africa and Asia now get free (or very cheap) access to Facebook and Wikipedia)
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• Check these examples of reconciliation mediated by Facebook. And see our other social networking posts.

History of church movements, from Trevin Wax’s blog at Gospel Coalition.

Click on graphic for larger version

Digital technology years seem to run seven times faster than real time, like dog lives. What developments may be significant for us in 2012?

The three-fold cord of mobile phones, social networking and video shorts will surely continue to grow in significance. India will have 200 million new mobile accounts during the year, and release the $50 Tablet for Schools.

A 4-week distance-learning course in mobile ministry starts this week – there is still time to sign up. Also still open for booking: the 8-11 Feb ICCM conference in Netherlands.

April 29 will be Internet Evangelism Day, and the whole month of April is designated Digital Outreach Month. (Here’s a ready-made short news item to use in print or online.) This is a great time for churches to investigate the huge potential of digital, and perhaps also consider whether to appoint a Digital Advocate.

2012 will surely be a year of great uncertainty and stress for many people, and there are many ways that we can connect with them online.

Read more on all these opportunities.

Photo credit: Pleroma/Flickr | Creative Commons

Church websites have huge potential. The Internet Toolbox for Churches offers a regular podcast with vital information on this area.

Listen to their latest podcast A Church’s Mindset for Internet Outreach. Some podcasts are rather self-indulgent chats with a lot of padding around the content. This one isn’t. It is 28 minutes of sheer clarity and practical guidance by David Hakes, so good you’d pay to go to a conference to hear it as a seminar.

Listen streamed here:

or download the MP3 – right-click to save, left-click to listen in a new tab so you can continue browsing.

Visit the Internet Toolbox for Churches where you can subscribe to their email newsletter, and download previous podcasts from iTunes.

In the Celtic Christian tradition, ‘thin spaces’ are times and places where the spiritual and the natural world intersect – occasions when it is possible to reach out and be touched by God.

Christmas, even in our post-christendom world, is such a thin space. Even despite the western consumer-fest of Christmas, even in countries with no Christian tradition, even with all the schmaltz and sparkle, there is often a remarkable focus on the story of God born as man.

It is the one time in the year when many, with no apparent interest in faith, will attend a church, or read the Christmas story – perhaps as part of their attempt to recapture something of the wonder of their childhood.

“But how did it end?”

Cartoon credit: Papas/Manchester Guardian. Used with permission of Guardian Newspapers

Staggering numbers of people use Google to find out more of the Christmas story. Websites which have outsider-friendly explanations of Christmas will receive hundreds, often thousands, of hits during December. It’s not too late to add pages to your church website, for example. Rusty Wright’s Christmas articles, along with some of our recommended embedded video clips, would be a quick ready-made way to go, and can put the Christmas story into the context of the entire Good News.

In UK last year, the usually secular BBC produced a compelling 4-part TV drama series retelling the Christmas story with great power.

Using video

Gateway Church has produced a very creative video to express the reason Jesus was born. Their team spent 80 hours in production and animation on this project. For this purpose, they’ve stripped any branding for the church to make it available for others to use. You can embed it on Facebook or blogs, or download an HD copy to use in a church meeting. Here’s the five-minute video:

Creative ideas

Christmas videos can go viral, especially if they have a new slant or way of presentation. The Beatbox Nativity video produced by a UK pastor has been featured in the national press because of its unique style, and has just won a national UK competition sponsored by TV company ITN.

Damaris resources on Christmas are another effective way of using this opportunity – see below. And check our other Christmas videos and stories and Power to Change’s Santa’s Greatest Gift.

Without a website, a church is effectively invisible. With a website, you potentially create a shop window for the community to peer through. What is on display, especially ‘near the glass’, is very important.

“Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity.” (Colossians 4:5)

Unlike most websites, church sites need to span three very different audiences: resource church members, help Christians looking for a new (or holiday) church, and relate effectively to outsiders in the community. Challenging, but also very achievable.

Read how

Photo credit: Oast House Archive | Creative Commons | Pictured: Adam’s Stationers, Rye