The Impact of Social Media in Ministry
In the days we live in, the words social media brings negative and positive emotions to pastors. I love social media. I think there are things within social media that can become negative. Using social media in ministry can become a game changer and open the doors to allowing visitors and prospective church members learn more about your ministry.
Below are ways that the local church can make an impact through Social Media.
Promote Services
One of the weekly posts we do within our student ministry is to publish and promote our weekly services weekly. Students and adults have a lot going on within their lives between sporting events and extra-curricular activities during different seasons of the year. Because of the craziness of schedules, it is crucial to weekly remind (on the day of the service) to tell people to come and join you for worship. I schedule out my text messages and posts to happen on specific days to reach people. Both students and adults have shared that our social media posts helped them remember our weekly service.
One other idea that I implement through promoting our services is a one minute or less invite to students/adults or a graphic from our current sermon series to help grab someone’s attention. Be creative and allow social media promote your weekly schedule or services.
Share Bible Verses
I am a huge fan of the YouVersion Bible app our phones. I have found the Bible app very useful to read the Bible on the go or even have a voice read the bible to me while I drive. When I am using the YouVersion app, I have found it very useful to create and use images to share Bible verses with people on different social media platforms. I would encourage you as a Pastor, a volunteer, or a church staff to share out Bible verses for future services to help prepare your congregation for the upcoming church service. Let us take it one step further, share Bible verses also to promote church events, vision, and future retreats.
Go on a Missions Trip via Social Media
Social media has become in my personal opinion one of the primary communication tools used today. If the majority of communication in the world is happening on social media, why then is the church not using it to advance the Gospel message.
A few years ago I came up with this radical idea, what if we sent our teenagers on a missions trip online. Well, that idea led to producing material that allows other churches to send their students on an online missions trip. I have included the link below if you are interested in learning more or buying the material from Download Youth Ministry.
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/mission-trip-to-your-school
Promote Events
I use social media to promote every event that we do within our ministry. I have found that the more visual avenues we give to reach our students, the more natural they remember dates and events. I would recommend being creative and provide the students with a place to sign up for events. There are many different ways to create an innovative or artsy post, but if you are like me and have no creative bone in your body, then I have an original tool for you. When I make a post to promote an event I use canva.com or the iPhone app Canva. The majority of the items on Canva are free, but some things may cost you a dollar or two. Canva has been a lifesaver for our ministry, and we use it daily within our ministry.
Engage and Follow Up with Visitors
One of the last ways that Social Media can make an impact on your ministry, following up with visitors. We have our social media accounts set up to serve as a tool to follow up with visitors and to help get them connected to our church. After a student visits, we try to communicate with them on social media and let them know about some of the upcoming events going on within our ministry. Once a visitor has been connected with us on Social Media we try to connect them with an upcoming event and even scholarship them to come. Why? Because we want to help them get connected with other believers or if they are non-Christians we want to have a place to hear the Gospel Message.
One of the most significant ways to impact members, visitors, and even the community is to post regularly. I schedule and plan out a month ahead time for my posts. Why? Because I want to make sure I have regular posts that impact lives around us.
