Out of the Box Worship Center in Hillsville, VA is a non-traditional United Methodist small town church that is gaining attention for its dramatic social media driven growth. Launched in January 2011 as an extension of First United Methodist Church of Hillsville, VA, the new church start has grown enough to need two services in their 180 seat worship center. So What? Out of the Box's pastor, Ronnie G. Collins, stated, "When the church first started, we placed one full-page ad Read More …
Your Church’s Social Media Goals (#0446)
Adam Bowers, owner of Adam Bowers Media, recently blogged about the advice he gives churches about creating social media goals. Since there is no universally accepted standard of success and no simple way for parishes to determine how their results compare to other churches, he presents a solid framework for developing a social media strategy: Do your homework – research pre-existing social media use at your church. Before you can formulate goals, you need to make sure Read More …
The First Rule of Social Media (#0432)
Michael Buckingham is the founder of Holy Cow Creative (a church creativity and design studio) and the creative director for the Center for Church Communication and Church Marketing Sucks. Last week he wrote about the importance and power of the question mark in social media. He writes: The very first rule of social media that I put in place with the churches I work with: There should be more question marks than periods on your page. Now of course this is a rule of Read More …
Facebook Users Are . . . (#0419)
The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project recently released Social Networking Sites and our Lives, which is a report based on the findings of a survey on Americans' use of the internet conducted from October 20 to November 28, 2010 with a sample of 2,255 adults, age 18 and older who were contacted via both landline and cellular phones. The research supports the commonly held view that Facebook is currently the dominant social networking option with some Read More …
Church Communication – from Print to Social Media (#0404)
Dave Travis, Managing Director of Leadership Network, recently interviewed DJ Chuang, a web and social media coach, on the topic of how churches use social media: What are the biggest challenges for churches? [ and how do you help solve them] One of the biggest challenges for churches large and small is to get church communications to flow more rapidly. Social Media is practically instant, yet much of typical church communications is developed for a weekly event or produced over weeks and Read More …
Twitter for Middle School Students (#0393)
CNN.com recently featured Dan Simon's report on how one eighth grade history teacher is using Twitter in the classroom on the news site's home page. Enrique Legaspi reminds his students to BYOT (Bring Your Own Technology), but his classroom also includes computers for any students without a device that connects to the internet. During class, he asks students to tweet their responses to his questions. Legaspi finds that using Twitter in this manner helps students find their Read More …
Classroom Conversations Go the Way of Social Media (#0372)
Trip Gabriel's recent New York Times article, "Speaking Up in Class, Silently, Using Social Media," explores the uses of backchannels (real-time online dialogue about a speaker or topic) in the classroom. While backchannels are being utilized at all levels of education - from elementary schools to graduate degree programs - the overall adoption rates are low. Those who leverage this new interactive supplement to the learning experience employ a variety of means including Twitter, Read More …
Members as Social Media Advocates (#0367)
Matt Carlisle is a self-described "evangelist for web and social media" who previously served as the executive designer, producer and editor of UMC.org, the official website of The United Methodist Church. He founded Big Heart Design, a web and social media strategy consulting firm, and recently wrote about the importance of local congregations training members to become "your greatest social media advocates." Specifically, he suggests churches would benefit from offering Read More …
Toward A Christian Response to the Death of Osama bin Laden (#0354)
Osama bin Laden’s death has been a lead news story for the last several days. Over the course of the week I have read a number of tweets, Facebook status messages, and blog posts commenting on the matter from a Christian perspective. These reflections represent a wide range of theological beliefs, including a number that place United States citizenship above one’s place in the reign of God and sound quite unChristian. In contrast, I offer the words of leaders from two of the Read More …
WWJD With Social Media in Ministry? (#0353)
G. Elijah Dann, author of God in the Public Square (2010) and an instructor of philosophy and religion for Simon Fraser University's Senior Program, recently wrote an article for the Huffington Post considering what Jesus' ministry might have been like had it occurred during the age of social media. Dann's introduction to the idea begins with the birth of Jesus and his use of MapQuest, GPS, Facebook, Google and Travelocity reminded me of The Digital Story of the Nativity. Additionally, he Read More …