Steeples and social media
I used to think that newspapers were the slowest institution to adapt to change and find new ways of doing business. Not any more, though. With the Internet and new forms of competition, newspapers realized they needed to change or die.
When it comes to churches, though, I’ve sensed they haven’t gotten this message. Except for a flirtation with the idea of “drive-in” churches (pack up the kids and go as you are because you won’t leave your car anyway), I’m not sure churches have changed the way they do business much.
Faced with declining memberships, especially among young people, churches across the country are starting to consider ways of using the social media to attract new members, connect existing members, and deliver news of outreach programs. (AP Photo/The Cincinnati Enquirer/Carrie Cochran)
Changes in size
Certainly some churches – dubbed megachurches – have gotten much bigger, and the denominational walls have been punctured, if not obliterated in some places. So some change is occurring at some churches. But there are also a lot of near-empty and decaying traditional structures that used to house the overflowing First Methodist or First Presbyterian Church in any city.
But changing size isn’t necessarily changing practices.
According to the 2011 Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches, it looks like a lot of these churches should think about doing things differently. The reason is that membership is declining in mainline denominational churches and has been doing so since the 1970s. In some cases the decline is small but, when you factor in the country’s population growth during that time, the decline has actually been very steep.
Pews not as full
The Presbyterian Church (USA) has posted the largest membership drop, followed by the United Methodist Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Episcopal Church, and the more conservative Lutheran Church/Missouri Synod. The giant Southern Baptist Convention and the Catholic Church show figures that are relatively flat. Pentecostal churches like the Assemblies of God and the Church of God are faring better.
I was thinking about this the other day and that led me – where else – to the Internet and specifically to the question of how churches are using the social media like Facebook to boost membership.
Turning to social media
Turns out, there are more changes afoot in churches than I realized.
One story I came across involved a Rev. Alex Lang, associate pastor of Pine Street Presbyterian Church in Harrisburg, Pa.
Lang is one of a growing number of pastors who are becoming more tech-savy in taking their churches online.
When Rev. Lang realized his 153-year-old church needed to attract new members, he turned to Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, and other social networks to increase interest and awareness in his church.
Reversing a trend
“Like many mainline Protestant churches, we are experiencing a declining members,” Lang told Pennlive.com. “We wanted to reverse that and attract new members, especially in the 20 to 45-age group. A lot of people that age think we are too traditional and locked in our ways. That’s not the reality at all.”
To prove it, Pine Street Church took to the social media. From announcements about upcoming services, to news of bake sales, to tweeted prayers, and intercessions, , the church is taking advantage of the powers of social networking.
Here are a few other discoveries:
• A lot of churches are using FB to make their members and guests feel more connected to the church and its membership.
• The average Facebook user has 130 registered “friends,” so if just 20 church members use Facebook, that’s potentially 2,600 people who could read posts about your church. One hundred members with Facebook could touch 13,000. Many pastors have done that math and like the results.
Spiritual leaders as traditional as Pope Benedict XVI have endorsed the use of social media by churches. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
• Facebook makes it easy for churches to start and run pages, with its “Create a Page,” feature. FB also offers helpful advice to churches on how to connect with their community.
• Church is, by definition, about community and relationships. So are social media. This idea comes from Jon Swanson, creator of the Levite Chronicles. Swanson writes, “If you take what Jesus said about what we know as church with some seriousness, it is a set of vertical and horizontal relationships. It is about the people. And so it is with social media.”
• Swanson was part of a team that went to Gulfport, Miss., to help in the reconstruction of the area after Hurricane Katrina. “While we were there, we put pictures on flickr, audioblogged with hipcast, and just blogged. People back home were able to look and listen and read. People put our links on their church websites,” he says.
• Pastors keep up to date on illnesses and hardships of their members by scanning their Facebook pages to see how they are doing and what milestones are occurring in their lives.
Catholics on board
Also discovering the power of social media are Roman Catholic Churches, even though the Vatican governing powers are not always seen as the most modern or worldly group.
Nevertheless, in Pope Benedict’s message last January to the church’s World Communications Day (which arrives on June 5), he called Facebook, Twitter, and the other social media a “great opportunity” for developing dialogue, respect, and honest relationships.
I suppose if a 2,000-year-old institution can change, so can the rest of us.
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Comments
This is a fascinating topic for discussion. It’s true that there are more empty church pews than ever before and churches, no doubt, will certainly have to look at ways to fill them.
Social media seems be a viable (and affordable) option for many churches these days, but some megachurches are pushing the technological envelope by way of a hologram preacher (http://www.christianpost.com/news/hologram-preachers-slated-to-appear-in-churches-44118/). The 3D technology, which projects a life-like holographic image of an individual, could begin replacing 2D video conferencing that megachurches now offer to its “satellite” campuses.
Is it overkill or cutting edge? Is it an effective way to spread the gospel or simply “Keeping up with the Joneses”? Whatever the media, churches will have to find some form of effective media that can share its message with the masses.
This story is extremely interesting to me, especially since I am currently working with an orthodox church to implement a social media plan – it caught me off guard. I don’t think we can blame social media alone for the decline in church membership, but I do believe the trend can be attributed to the technology with which younger generations have been raised.
Churches have to find a way to effectively communicate with the masses, and right now that way is social media. I’m not a proponent of online churches in the least, but they have to do whatever is necessary to continue spreading the gospel.
This was a very interesting subject now that i realized it i have seen that the church that I attend has a facebook page. The churches members are declining because this generation has more technology and enterntianment that makes them less interested in attending church.The times that I have been to church I always see my friend’s parents there but not them. The churches had always competed to who has the most members and followers. It was a good idea that they decided to get more members through facebook and twitter. I was surprised to see that even the catholic church thought that this was a good idea.
This was quite an interesting post. I think of the churches as being behind the times and not staying technology savy all of the time. I have realized more that my church will have facebook pages for their events listed on the screen when they are doing announcements. It is a strange concept to me about the church being involved with things like facebook, since we are called to be in the world but not of the world. Although it may help increase the attendance, I wonder if it really is benefitting believers, or if attendance record is more important to churches than truly saving people.
Interseting article. I ask the question, are memberships in churches declining because they are not meeting the needs of their members by not implementing social media…or is social media the reason why people are not going to church? To explain further – because we have social media outlets as a way to receive communications and various information around the world, are our church members (especially the younger ones) starting to question the Christian faith because of what they read online, see on TV, etc.?