Facebook & My Church

[Mike]

I find this a bit uncomfortable.

I'm on the School Board for our church/school. Along with this board, there's the Elder Board and the Church Council. We are the "leadership" of our church, and we're being utilized to heighten attention to our church. The pastor at our church has been encouraged to utilize Facebook in reaching out to the community. Okay, cool. But... Here's what they're doing -

On Facebook, we opt to "like" our church. Then the pastor puts posts on FB about anything; for example: "I remember when Romeo Planke was a 2-lane dirt road.". The the expectation (not a suggestion!) is that we comment on his post with something like, "Oh, that's before my time. How interesting!". This is intended to draw people in to our conversation who are my "friends" on Facebook. They're even going to feed us with suggested responses to give! :o

This is intended to get our conversation on the pages of our friends and create awareness of the church and ultimately interest. Now, I've been on Facebook for about 5 years, but I lost all interest early on, and my account has basically inactive. So here's me coming out of nowhere with a contrived dialogue. That is so phony!

Doesn't this dialogue sound forced and contrived? I feel awkward and silly doing this. I may protest and not do it. If they want to kick me off the board, so be it. I'm sure it wouldn't come to that, but certain people won't be happy. :gah

Does anyone else integrate Facebook into their church?

 

[Christ_empowered]

That sounds more than a little manipulative. Then again, businesses use facebook to push their wares all the time, so its not as if this is unheard of. I understand your feeling on facebook. I deleted my profile a year ago. It strikes me as kind of dishonest for a church to use social media to get attention and push their attention, especially if the responses you're going to be posting have been pre-determined.

 

[Classik]

Water went uphill! I understand!
Ours... just for communication purposes! Individual!

 

[Mike]

That sounds more than a little manipulative. Then again, businesses use facebook to push their wares all the time, so its not as if this is unheard of. I understand your feeling on facebook. I deleted my profile a year ago. It strikes me as kind of dishonest for a church to use social media to get attention and push their attention, especially if the responses you're going to be posting have been pre-determined.

And it's gonna be so obvious. Here's me who hasn't bothered to post anything in years, and now I'm having an "out of place" conversation with my pastor. Anyone who knows me is going to know this isn't me.

I do go on FB almost every day just to keep tabs on our son's account, but I go through his account so I can see everything. (that's our agreement) I just don't bother with mine.

 

[jasoncran]

I find this a bit uncomfortable.

I'm on the School Board for our church/school. Along with this board, there's the Elder Board and the Church Council. We are the "leadership" of our church, and we're being utilized to heighten attention to our church. The pastor at our church has been encouraged to utilize Facebook in reaching out to the community. Okay, cool. But... Here's what they're doing -

On Facebook, we opt to "like" our church. Then the pastor puts posts on FB about anything; for example: "I remember when Romeo Planke was a 2-lane dirt road.". The the expectation (not a suggestion!) is that we comment on his post with something like, "Oh, that's before my time. How interesting!". This is intended to draw people in to our conversation who are my "friends" on Facebook. They're even going to feed us with suggested responses to give! :o

This is intended to get our conversation on the pages of our friends and create awareness of the church and ultimately interest. Now, I've been on Facebook for about 5 years, but I lost all interest early on, and my account has basically inactive. So here's me coming out of nowhere with a contrived dialogue. That is so phony!

Doesn't this dialogue sound forced and contrived? I feel awkward and silly doing this. I may protest and not do it. If they want to kick me off the board, so be it. I'm sure it wouldn't come to that, but certain people won't be happy. :gah

Does anyone else integrate Facebook into their church?

no. i dont

 

[jasoncran]

i am no different here, i just post more stuff on where i work, albeit subitley and with those i know( a person) and we criticize the council and or talk politics or our faith.

any person who knows me would know that i would be faking it.

 

[Chris]

Christians should ban fakeness in an attempt to witness to people. You are soooo right Mike

fake Christians or fake anyone could possibly be the subject of public ridicule, it can be seen through fairly easily.

Back to facebook and church. I use all the time to find out whats going on at church. All us guys at church talk to each other on it. We joke and say funny things our non church friends see and join in.

My church is affiliated with Hillsong and is really professional like them. Everything that comes out of the FB page or website is real slick and you dont mind your friends seeing it.



In a big church FB groups are invaluable to contact each other to make announcements to the members of cell groups and activities groups.


All our fun things and activities we do at church are seen by other friends. - They may be bored at home and we are doing fun things. Churches have huge social and group things many people dont have in their lives to such am extent.



I also use FB to talk to school kids before I go see them in ethics/scripture class I do oncea week. I often post things i see on forums in their group so they can think about it before I go. Kids are addicted to it. You can be hope they might read it.


Everyone does FB now Its a free form of advertising for church and an avenue of accessibility to seekers of Christianity. It's an invaluable one.


I guess you have to move with the times or stand by and watch times pass you by. FB and church is a great mix. Just be genuine and have fun, it will catch on.

 

[jasoncran]

i can live without fb. easily.

most of the timet theres it some debate or another on the faith or politics.

i posted that i believe that 9-11 was a judgment and i got to use that as a witness to an athiest or zen buddhist that i know.

sadly not many comments from the american christians.

 

[Chris]

Alsi I forgot to add, I join groups I am interested in locally in my area, and because of that I go to their events they organize. Because of that i have new friends I would have other wise never met and I see some of them socially as new friends. As far as I know none are Christians, but they are my new acquaintances, and good for a laugh too It all snowballs. Its just good fun sometimes..

 

[Cheyenne K]

"...take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate: but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost." - Mark 13:11

My church does not use facebook, no. We have a website, but we don't use facebook. It's mostly an older generation anyway who go there, so the idea of using it is kind of laughable.

But that's definitely...not cool. It's just manipulative. Personally, I'd be more convicted to go to a church if I was actually invited, or had done some research about it beforehand if I was not, and I'd stay based on how the people were in their relations and the Gospel message. Facebook conversations would not entice me at all, let alone forced ones. Don't get me wrong, facebook can be really great to use for a church, but the dialogues would not entice me so much, especially if they were forced.

 

[Nick]

Our church has various FB pages, for different congregations, and we have events for some weeks' services, particualrly if theiy're evangelistic weeks. I think it works well, and I'm sure this could have a positive impact, Mike.

But...the scripted responses sounds concerning. It's almost as if they're afraid church members would say something wrong, or like they have something to hide. I'm not saying that's the case, but that's immediately what I thought of.

If I was on the board, I would be very interested to know from the Pastor, and anyone else who is pushing the scripted response idea, why exactly they want to go down this path.

 

[Classik]

Do not be horrified by the FB thing. Do the following:

*Take a light shower (swimming is better)
*Take some Pizza
*Take some cocacola
*Ask your progeny to tell you bible stories
*Try CNN News
*Follow a Soccer/football
*Get secluded for a while
*A little prayer!
---
---
Then think about the fb thing and you will find an answer - A Still Small Voice.

 

[stovebolts]

Well Mike, if ya all weren't so darn boring you'd naturally say, "Wow! I remember when that was a dirt road! You know, when we were teenagers... " :D Live a little

Still say you should have come up this summer and did a BBQ and rode dirt bikes with us. Son rode a 2 stroke 200 on Saturday at Taylor's track. He could barely reach the pegs

 

[handy]

Yes, it does sound very contrived and manipulative. Sounds like your church is getting caught up in the "we gotta be cool to attract the seekers" mentality.

Sad.

I will never understand why some churches trade the gospel for slick marketing techniques. Not saying your church is doing this Mike, but it sure sounds like. It's like..."What God has given us to give to the world isn't enough...we need to look to the world to improve what we have."

Frankly, it would be a real turn off to me.

Besides, Christians get slammed for insincerity enough as it is.

 

[reba]

Any one want to bet face book wil split the church?

People say stuff on face book they may not say in person, I dont like face book i dont like that it follows me around the internet... I use it to check on my USMC grandson and he is home safe so i will most likely delete my account..

We are to lift up Christ not face book... Believe it or not there is more gossip on face book then in the Wednesday morning ladies prayer meeting.

 

[Mike]

I'm on my phone and can't multiple thread-reply, so here's a few random responses. Jeff, I must have missed that invitation to visit this summer.

My church's consultants have said that the greatest growing demographic on FB is 65-years +. It makes sense, because kids and young adults are already on it, so grandparents are joining to keep up with their photos and such. My dad just joined.

I think the reason they are going with this striped stuff is that my pastor is up there in age and is afraid of what an initiative like this will draw. That's all I can come up with. He's afraid of anyone and everyone on the internet responding with garbage. They do have a person designated to delete inappropriate comments. But that doesn't mean the responses should be scripted or that we should be told our responses will be an "expectation". If no one responds, it's not like his posts will wind up on any of my friend's pages anyway. I tried to reason with him, but his consultant has more weight with his words.

 

[handy]

Mike,

When you speak of the "consultants" who are these people? Are they elders and deacons in the church...members of the church board?

I remember when I was employed by a fairly large employer (more than 3000 people) they hired consultants, especially in marketing. They were the ones who came in and changed people's job titles, rearranged furniture and ran big events to pump up the sales force so that the profit margin would increase.

If these are the type of "consultants" your pastor is depending on for advice...then you have a bigger problem than scripted FB entries, my friend.

btw...that company I worked for...the one that followed the advice of all those consultants...no longer in business.

 

[stovebolts]

Dora,
That's the thing with consultants, you pay them to tell you what you want to hear.

That being said, I'm not sure they have a bad idea. What I do see though, is if your selling the church, then it should be sold at face value. In other words, what you see, is what you get and if Mike doesn't want to feel like he's being a puppet, then he shouldn't do it.

However, do people need to be nudged out of their comfort zone at times? I would have to say yes... Yes they do and we all know that Mike is a social butterfly and free as the wind ;)

But this is what else I see. When your in leadership, then you're pushed into a whole new realm of dynamics. Simply put, if you don't have the support and leadership of your elders, or in Mikes case his committee, then any program started doesn't have much of a chance. In other words, if other people in the congregation see Mike and the others supporting this effort, they will more than likely follow suit and maybe, just maybe this thing will take off and not only will the congregation be doing something else together throughout the week, but other people may want to join in as well.

As an example of something that failed, I have seen it time and time again where the elders don't support something that somebody wants to do and it fails a miserable death. Somebody else comes up with the same idea a year down the road and the elders support it, and it takes off. Don't underestimate the power of leadership.

So Mike, the question really is this. Do you see value in this new program and if so, what are you willing to put toward it to make it successful?

 

[stovebolts]

Mike,
As far as coming up this summer, I know we talked about it, but it just never happened.

Oh well. We're still doing Journey to Bethlehem first part of December at the camp. Your Church is more than welcome to come check it out. We're trying to promote to some of the inner city churches as well because they don't know what it's like to get out of Detroit.

Anyway, don't want to rail your thread. C, ya.

 

[jasoncran]

Any one want to bet face book wil split the church?

People say stuff on face book they may not say in person, I dont like face book i dont like that it follows me around the internet... I use it to check on my USMC grandson and he is home safe so i will most likely delete my account..

We are to lift up Christ not face book... Believe it or not there is more gossip on face book then in the Wednesday morning ladies prayer meeting.

that has happened to a close friend of mine that simply posted these guys are 'aholes". their crime pics of hanging kittens and them smiling about it and posting it on myspace.

it wasnt the curse words but the image of that. so he deleted all the members of his church. his pastor didnt care and it was the worship leaders wife who had the trouble.

sadly if i taught revalation my near dogmatic pre-trib church i dont think i would be allowed to do so as i would teach all views and let each defend their position after reasearching as i would go through that book and learn what the symbols mean.