The Only Reason for Churches to be on Social Media

Do you know why your church has a digital presence? 

Have you ever thought about it or do you just kind of sign up for accounts because you feel like you need to? 

Everyone’s on Facebook. I should be on Facebook, everyone’s on Instagram, I should be on Instagram.

Tik Tok: do I really need to be on Tik Tok? 

Click here for the video version.

And over the past few weeks, we’ve shared a few pieces of content on various platforms Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Tik Tok, where we’ve talked about the goal of ministries and churches being on social media.

They got some traction, and so we wanted to speak to this concept in a YouTube video. 

The point of the Tik Tok tweet and post was all the same. Is that the goal of being on social media? It’s not to go viral.

It’s not even to attract people to come to your church in person. It’s not to be like the coolest church doing the latest thing and just being able to say like, “Oh, we’re on Tik Tok, we are hip and in the “know”; no, the goal of whatever kind of digital ministry you’re engaging in should be your mission.

Living out your mission online.

That is it. 

One of the biggest things that we see when we do digital communications reviews for churches is that the content they’re putting out, the posts they’re making on whatever platforms they’re on, are often trying to get people to come in person.

They’re inviting them to events, great events, wonderful events that they are putting lots of time and love and care into. But that’s like the majority of, if not all, of their posts. 

This is unfortunate because there’s so much potential on social media and for digital ministry, there’s so much potential for community to be built online on these platforms for you to really dive in and focus in on even just one or two platforms where you can try to build community connection with people who are spending time on these platforms; people that might not want to go in person to what you have going on; people that might not be physically located near you.

And yet people that could still be impacted by your mission. 

People that you can share teachings with through TikTok videos.

People that you can engage in small group sessions online in whatever way is most comfortable for them. 

And there’s so many opportunities for people that are hurting that need someone to care for them.

And that’s literally your jobs. It’s like the perfect match. That’s how we see it. Do you see this world of people hurting that are spending so much time online? Not that that’s a bad thing.

That’s just where they spend time because they like to be there. 

And then we see these church leaders, these administrators, as faith leaders that are so equipped to help them and they just need to get there, right?

They just need to extend their mission into the digital space.

And so no, you’re not trying to go viral, you’re trying to engage people exactly where they are and they are online. 

That’s what statistics continue to tell us anyway.

People spend more and more time online each and every year. 

So we encourage you to consider how can your mission be translated into these digital spaces? 

These digital platforms that we have available to us, if you need ideas, if you need someone to kind of help you get started.

We do have an e-book available Be Church Online. How Progressive Christian leaders can embrace digital ministry. Honestly, it’s the perfect thing for you if you’re just getting started.

Here’s another way we can help you out if you are looking for something free. 

We just put together this webinar to help you with ideas for impact for your digital ministry that you need to do before Easter. 

It’s about an hour long and then you have 20 idea; ten for website, ten for social media, that you can just implement in place for Easter so that when the eyes come to your church, because people are looking for more and more communities during the season as Lent is upon us and people are wondering what they’re going to do for Easter this year, they can see your community; they can see how you shine, hope healing and light not only offline but online, and they can actually find you online. There’s so much good stuff in there.

Remember your mission and remember that that is why you were online to share that mission online. You might have to get creative thinking about what exactly that’s going to look like online, but I promise as you go through that journey, it is going to be more than worth it to impact these people with the hope, healing and light that you and your mission have to offer them. 

We brought the knowledge, it’s your turn to put it into action and peace be with you as you do.