Many Christians and churches have noticed that Facebook is a great way to “advertise” their church. Most of our forward-most thinking churches have done little more than set up a Facebook page. However, after setting up the page, they advertise the page and will occasionally post an advertisement of an upcoming activity…and walk away. In the Army, we call this “fire and forget”. “Fire and forget” happens when a missile is “able to guide itself to its target once fired.” We fire out the message and then let it go—hoping it will hit its target.
I want you to now consider how this Facebook approach may look like in real life. What if, a person came to your church during the middle of the week. In one case a person walks up the sidewalk and knocks on the door and finds a very happy person hands this visitor a flyer for last month’s event—because “we don’t have anything happening right now, but this will show what nice activities we have!”. The happy person then closes the door and walks away. In a second case, the visitor walks up the sidewalk and sees the same poster taped to the door. He knocks, but no one comes to the door. Both instances, are instances of “Fire and Forget”. We seem to think that the poster is enough to encourage a person to attend our church.
Facebook is more than a bulletin board of dated information. It is also more than a place for cute quotes. Facebook is social media. For Facebook to work in ministry, we must be social. We must interact. We must post something rather than the agenda that we are pushing. We must listen. We must be social.
As you think about your church’s Facebook strategy, think about the many different ways to be social. Through photos, or stories—photos are great but the stories add context. Through answering questions or posing questions. Through interacting on other posts, maybe sharing appropriate photos from members’ pages. There are many ways to build interaction and social activity through Facebook. Doing so will open a large door of new ministry for you and your church.
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Logo: Facebook.com