How can a church use social media to make a difference to people’s lives?

It’s a fantastic way to bring in-person ministry and online ministry together and let them work in sync with each other.

Should Churches even use social media?

As a church, do you feel some resistance about using social media, either from other church pastors, senior church leaders or even church members? Do you question whether you should even be using social media?

If you do question yourself, I believe that this question can be easily answered. How? Because of the great commission of Jesus Christ to ‘Go and make Disciples of ALL nations.’ And what better place to reach potentially thousands of people and to tell them about Jesus Christ than social media where everyone from the old to the young are hanging out.

(Smartinsights.com) ‘The number of social media users globally grew from 4.2 billion in January 2021 to 4.62 billion in January 2022. This accounts for a 10.1% growth of global social media usage.’

And who knows, perhaps social media is a modern-day resource engineered by God to help us reach different nations and tell them the Good News about Jesus Christ.

As I have said before, social media is not easy; however, I believe that it is something that anyone can learn to do and do it well if they are passionate about it.

Is doing Social Media for my church really worth it?

So, you may have now determined that yes, your church should probably have some social media. But the next question will be, is it really worth it.

The answer again, is, yes. There’s no getting round it, there’s a real hype around social media at the moment, even in churches, due to the large numbers of people using social media.

There’s no doubt, social media is important, and it does have its place. However, even I would say that it is not the be all and end all of your church.

But if you’re not doing social media, you will most certainly have to do some form of digital advertising if you want to grow your church.

Will it drive more members to our church?

Social media can certainly drive more members to your church. And this can be done at a relatively low cost if your social media is done effectively.

It’s the viral effect of social media that can help drive members to your church. That is when people engage, like or comment on a post, and then their friends see and like it and so on…

It’s important to therefore link your social media accounts wherever possible, i.e. your website, church banners in order to promote them and adding share buttons on any blogs or articles that you have.

Social Media Strategy

 Social media is constantly changing. But what stays the same is the importance of engaging with your followers. This is what can make a difference to people’s lives.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, and to be honest, I’ll probably always say this. The way to engage with your followers is to create high quality content which people can get value from, even if that value is fun and light relief. You want to aim for people to share your posts.

If you don’t post quality content which people need, then that is when social media may not be worth it for you as a church and therefore not have the effect that you would like on people’s lives.

Also, if you are only posting to promote certain aspects or events from your church, this will not be as effective.

As part of your strategy, you need to:

Know Who You Are as a church, and what your vision and belief is. Of course, all Christian churches believe in God, and that He sent his son Jesus Christ into the world to die on the cross to save us from our sins.

But after our core Christian beliefs, each church, each denomination has different ways of doing things. Different ways of praying, different ways of praise and worship. Because of this, some churches tend to attract a particular type of member.

There are some churches, who cater best to the millennial generation, others attract more of an older generation. Others attract a particular race, whereas others attract a great mix of people.

It is therefore crucial for you to understand who you are as a church and what you can bring to an individual or group of people and to identify what is unique about your church?

This will help you to connect with the right people on social media, and also help you to determine which social media platform is right for you. Eg. Instagram for millennials or Facebook for the older generation.

Once you have a core understanding of who you are as a church, you need to identify the following in order to get started:

What You Do

Ok, you may think this is a silly statement. What do we do? Well, you might say, we’re a church, we have church services and help the community and try to bring people closer to Christ.

Yes of course, churches must do all of that. But after that, then what?

The best way to identify what you do is to find out how you can add value to a particular group of people i.e. perhaps you have an outstanding youth ministry, or perhaps you have an awesome African based worship team, or you are great for families as you have a great children’s ministry and host lots of family events within the year…

Once you determine this, again, you will then be able to best establish which is the best social media platform to use to tell people what you do.

Why you do it

Why do you feel that you are called to add value to the lives of this particular community of people.

Here, it’s important to identify what your target group’s pain point is, and to try to meet them where they are in their lives. When you have an answer to this, you are then able to create messages, and sermons and life groups that can meet those people where they are.

Consistency is crucial

I will never stop going on about consistency.

It is not enough to have a Facebook page, or an Instagram page or a YouTube page. It is crucial to have a designated person who can focus their time and efforts on your social media. The more you can invest in this person, the better it is for your church growth.

I hope that this information will really help you to get started with or to develop your social media further.

If you haven’t already, do have a look at out other blogs on social media and churches to see how they can also give you further insight.