Poll: Churches are fans of Facebook, social media

Baptist Press: Poll: Churches are fans of Facebook, social media

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--Churches are turning increasingly to social networking tools as ministry aids and Facebook is by far the most popular tool, according to a new study by LifeWay Research.

The survey of 1,003 Protestant congregations was conducted in September and sponsored by LifeWay's Digital Church partner, Fellowship Technologies. It found that 47 percent of churches actively use Facebook.

The second most popular way of networking is through the tools included in church management software packages, actively used by 20 percent of congregations. Three percent use MySpace, 2 percent a church-specific package like Cobblestone, Unifyer, or The City, and 1 percent use Ning.

However, a full 40 percent of churches do not use any social networking tools. ...

Comments

[Tom Tuerff]

The longer version of this article makes the point that churches with over 500 members use social media a lot more than those with less than 50 members. That certainly makes sense; in a congregation of 50, a pastor might actually have time to interact during the week with most of the families in the church. Having a social media presence, while not overkill, is certainly a nice thing to have, if not vital.

However, when you get to the megachurch size, not using social media to connect with your members is foolish. The possible uses for a church social media site are virtually endless -- updates, prayer requests, meeting reschedules, special announcements, added service schedules during the holidays, etc.