News
From Gutenberg to Google Workshop
Posted October 15, 2024
By Elder Kerry Dowdy
Kerry Dowdy, committee member of the Encouraging Churches to Flourish Unit, provides a summary of the first workshop in the Zoom Worship Workshop Series
Social media is not going away anytime soon, so let’s embrace it in our ministries! On September 26, the Rev. A David Paul of Calvin Church presented Gutenberg to Google to illustrate how social media can be transformed to social ministry. This was the first in a series of trainings aimed at equipping leaders. There were about a dozen attendees that attended, but if you missed this, a video of the Zoom meeting is available.
Rev. David emphasized that if we’re not using social media in our ministries, we’re missing out on evangelizing to a wide demographic of folks. He provided some startling statistics that one third of the population is on Facebook. Furthermore, of those 2.7 billion Facebook users, 63% are under thirty years old and 25% are between 18 to 24 years old. A couple of reasons why Rev. David prefers Facebook is that it spans generations and on average a person spends nineteen hours a week viewing content or posts.
There are some strategies to using social media. First, he outlined organizing a capable team. He showed us how geese work together in their flying V pattern. Next, Rev. David pointed out that there should be a plan and to stick to the plan when posting content. He suggested reviewing the church’s mission and vision statements to ensure the messages are in line with the church’s beliefs and goals. These posts should generate ‘buzz’ worthy reactions and interest, not just promote events and happenings.
He also suggested using an editorial calendar to use for planning to leverage content and streamline resources. One last item we discussed was to listen for your Church’s voice. By this, Rev. David means the context posted should reflect the values of your church. He also recommended to review items and make sure they are rated PG or under and not offensive. There is importance with consistency that what is heard in the sanctuary is what is heard on social media.
We ended our time together with a question-and-answer segment. It was asked how do you build ‘followers’? Rev. David told us that Calvin sets up campaigns to increase followers. They encourage younger folks to help teach others about Facebook. There was also a question about online tithing. Rev. David told us that Calvin uses a ‘QR Code’ to promote online giving. They also make it known when a capital campaign for something specific is needed. We talked a little bit about ‘reels’ which are short videos that usually have music in the background to express a point of view or testimony. Rev. David uses these to share a key point of sermons to Calvin’ online community.
This presentation was practical, and I hope those who attended took away some nuggets of information they can use for their ministries.
