Mainstream churches should be using social media just like any other sector—to create dynamic conversations with their constituents. Some of the ways that faith-based communities are already using social media tools, not surprisingly, include Facebook groups, online prayer requests, and video and audio recordings of sermons on church Web sites. The more cutting-edge churches are experimenting with broadcasting live Twitter feeds during services, establishing a presence in virtual worlds like Second Life, and even setting up online-only churches with 24/7 real-time preaching and instant messaging.
The tools will continue to evolve, and the most well-resourced churches will adapt them for their particular needs and audiences. The most progressive churches will also see the social media revolution as an opportunity to advance a new way of doing business altogether. The traditional top-down and authoritarian approach, supported by a formal hierarchy of church officials, will be continually challenged by a bottom-up groundswell that empowers churchgoers to express their true thoughts, self organize, and participate directly in key decision making for the broader community. Moving forward, the physical and form church will be supplemented, and in some cases replaced, by a church, synagogue, or temple without walls. Ironically, this more fluid, interactive, and democratic approach parallels early church communities, which organized spontaneously and without formal church hierarchies and doctrines. So in one sense, social media is bringing churches “back to the future.”
Looking even further out, as the technology becomes smarter and more interactive still, the church is likely to become highly portable and always on via mobile phones or wearable computing devices. Hopefully, churches will begin to see the advantages of these trends too, leveraging a tremendous opportunity to be always available, instead of just during formal church activities and through slightly more interactive Web sites, blogs, and social networks.
How should mainstream churches approach social media today? They should be listening intensely to their communities and trying to understand how to better serve their needs, and only then select appropriate engagement tools. And they should be getting used to a prolonged period of the “not yet now” in which the church and its communication tools are never finished or fixed.
Paul Lamb is the head of Man on a Mission Consulting and manages a “Technology & Spiritual Practice” training program for faith-based communities and technologists.
Friday, March 26, 2010
How Should Mainstream Churches Be Using Social Media? Paul Lamb Answers - Science and Religion Today
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment