Willing to post more during Lent, but not sure what to say?

It’s easy to fall into the routine of only posting announcements about your church, but that’s not really engaging with your community is it?

Actually, that’s just asking something of people.

And there’s so much more that you can do with your church social media than that.

Especially during Lent.

Click here for the video version of this post!

Do’s and Don’ts

Before we get to the 17 ways you can caption your lent social media posts, let’s discuss a few brief do’s and don’ts.

Don’ts

• Don’t just post advertisements asking people to come to worship, volunteer, or tithe. These things are important, but they are not everything. Don’t let them be your entire feed.
• Don’t just post your worship services. Again, it’s important to share your worship, but that is not all you do as a church, so don’t let it be your entire feed.
• Don’t try to manage your social media all by yourself. What can you share? Who can you share it with? Who might be willing to be trained or open to a new role?
• Don’t include multiple “calls to action” (CTA) in your posts. You’ll confuse people. Are they being asked to pray or volunteer or donate or comment below or call a friend? Maybe each of these CTA’s could be a different post, but putting them all together is overwhelming.
• Don’t try all of these post suggestions during Lent. Seriously. You’ll overwhelm yourself. Start small with adding a few new ones into your mix and grow from there.

Do:

• Do include calls to action where it makes sense. Limit it to about one per post so people know exactly how they are being asked to respond.
• Do use hashtags on platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. This will help like-minded people find you and grow your impact beyond your local community.
• Do use tags on Youtube. Ditto.
• Do reference current trends and events. No need to live in a bubble, Church. Be relatable and approachable so people can connect with you better!
• Do use emojis, but don’t overdo it with them. Try to keep them to the end of your lines of text to make your content more accessible to those who may use a screen reader.
• Do consider supplementing your efforts with an image pack like our Lent + Holy Week Social Media Image Pack (25+ images for Facebook and Instagram). This gives you a completely done-for-you image to capture your peoples’ attention so you can try out any of the following caption ideas starting, like, today.

Caption Ideas

Again, today we are focusing specifically on caption content ideas. 

If you are looking for ideas for what types of images you could post along with these captions, check out this post about 6 churches who shared photos of their people in new innovative ways.

Or save yourself the trouble of imagining and creating and download our Lent + Holy Week Social Media Image Pack today.

1.  Short Caption

Not every caption needs to be long or drawn out.

You can post a photo of your church building in the sun with a “it’s a beautiful day!” caption and your people will love it.

You can post a photo with words on it and simply say, “amen.”

Don’t stress yourself out thinking that every post needs to be a theological reflection. 

2. Long Caption

Alternatively, don’t underestimate the attention spans of your people.

People still read books, newspapers, and blogs. 

Don’t be afraid to post a longer reflection every now and then. It might not be wise to make every post a longer reflection, but hey, all of these ideas are to be used in moderation.

3. Question

Ask a question with your post! 

It doesn’t have to be a contentious or even faith-related question. 

Get your people engaged with some healthy and light-hearted debate in the comment section by asking them questions with your posts.

4. Hymn/Song Lyrics

Hymn and song lyrics make an excellent resource for social media text copy.

Add in a relevant photo, a link to the song on YouTube, or a question about others’ favorite related song or hymn.

5. Poetry

Poetry can also be utilized for captions. Religious or nonreligious, poems can help people connect to emotions and thoughts they otherwise would not be able to. 

6. Bible Verse

Preaching on a particular Bible verse or passage this Sunday? Why not add it or portions of it to your social media throughout the week. It could serve as a sneak peak toward topics to come or a reflection on a verse/passage/book that your community recently discussed.

Add additional thoughts and perspective or allow the Scripture to speak as-is.

7. Devotion

Write out a brief devotion for your post or borrow one (with proper citation) from a devo you are loving. Ask others to send in devotions that they really love to add additional content to your social media. 

This might even lead to some interesting theological conversations!

8. Education

Teach people something!

As a church leader, you probably like to learn. Why not share some of that knowledge?

Share about your theology, Sunday’s Scripture passage context, history about your church, or even why you do a specific liturgical thing each week.

You may think everyone already knows the answer, but you may be surprised.

9. Sermon Content

Each week you or your preacher pour hours and hours of reflection and research into a sermon for it to be used for just a few minutes during worship.

Why not help your efforts go even farther by repurposing your content.

We talk more about this in this article, but the general idea is taking your wisdom from Sunday and sprinkling the same thoughts and reminders throughout the week.

10. Quotes

Whether the quotes are from a church member, a famous person, or the random book you are reading that week, quotes (with proper citation!) are a great way to borrow another person’s knowledge and share it for your community to engage with.

Ask them what they think of the quote or encourage them to ponder it further.

11. Prayer

Prayers can be short, long, or anything in between.

Write your own prayer or borrow another (with proper citation!).

12. Offer Image/Video Context

Captioning your post could be as simple as explaining the content of the rest of the post. 

If you took a photo of the birds outside your church because they are finally singing, say that.

If you posted a video because it reminded you of a Bible Study conversation, say that.

If you liked a particular image quote or piece of artwork, explain where you found it and why it stood out to you.

This will give your people insight to your experience and make it more likely that they would engage with it than if you posted the image or video with no caption.

13. Recognition

Use the caption space to lift up a particular member, staff person, theologian, person from Scripture, musician, artist, etc. 

This is an opportunity for you to recognize them for their gifts and allow others to offer appreciation. Think of “person of the week,” but it doesn’t necessarily have to be someone that you know personally (though it can be!).

14. Praise 

Celebrate that the sun is out. 

Celebrate that someone got their Covid vaccine.

Celebrate that your sermon is finished for Sunday.

Celebrate Jesus’s actions in the Scripture this week.

Celebrate a member’s accomplishment.

Celebrate a business in your community.

Lift up your praises to God with thanksgiving.

15. Lament

Lament the pandemic and the upheaval it has caused for so many.

Lament the insensitive response to the pandemic.

Lament the continued racial injustice within our society.

Lament those who are not accepted for who they are based on their sexual identity or orientation.

Lament a loss in your community.

Lament a lack of action.

Lift your pains to God with trust that your concerns are heard and held.

16. Pro Tip

Offer a friendly bite-sized piece of advice.

Think of this less as a teaching moment and more of a way to offer a quick snippet of advice.

This could be about how to engage with our faith – prayer, Bible Study, service, etc.

Or it could be about something completely unrelated to faith – funny, serious, or somewhere in between.

17. Encouragement

Last but not least, you can offer encouragement.

This could be an encouragement for your people to take steps in a particular action. 

It could be a reminder of their worth or the love of God.

Encouragements never get old.

Now what?

Can you believe that was 17 ideas already!?

Now it’s time to get started. 

Snap some photos, find some video links, or check out our Lent + Holy Week Social Media Image Pack so that you have some material to work with.

Then?

Get posting! In times like these, people are craving connection like never before. Take a leap, try something new, and Be Church Online.