Churches on Facebook, part 2

Several churches are using Facebook to spread the word about recent sermons and upcoming events. I recently found a church called Vox Veniae in Austin, Texas that's using a custom-built Facebook app to connect its own members and attenders and streamline their internal communications. I interviewed the Facebook app developer Yeeland Chen to get an inside look at how they're using Facebook --

DJ: What inspired you to build this Facebook app for your church?

Yeeland: The biggest inspiration to get the Vox Facebook app built was to find or create a tool that is flexible enough to help with everything that Vox does.  We've been through a number of social networking tools the last few years and none have been exceptionally useful, both for our staff as well as for people in our community.  When it came time to pick a new social networking tool a few months ago, we found that just about everything out there required people to create yet another user account on our servers, which means yet another username/password to remember and yet another site to log into if they cared to see what's going on.  None integrated social networking services that were already out there and were already used by people in our community.

Then along came the Facebook Platform. At the time, I estimated that our community is roughly 60% college students, of which roughly 99% already had a Facebook account.  The remaining 40% were postgrads, of which roughly half already had an account.  Most people who had Facebook accounts were already using it on a daily basis, too, so it quickly became clear that going this route was the best option.  Rather than asking people to create a new account on our server, we simply asked people to either use the account they were already using (the vast majority) or create a new account on Facebook.

Not only that, but developing our own application gave us the flexibility to use a feature set that fit our needs.  All other solutions restricted us to whatever feature set was offered.

DJ: What kind of functionality does this Facebook app provide? What issues did you want to solve or improve?

Yeeland: Right now, there are two main features.  People in our community are able to sign up for ministry teams and neighborhoods [Vox Veniae's version of small groups].  Leaders for those groups are able to set meeting times, access contact information, and get in touch with their respective groups.

I saw these two features as the most important if Vox were to really be a church that's more than just a gathering at a certain time and place on Sunday.

I do think that there is value in knowing when our Sunday services are and getting there (being able to offer or ask for rides is in the development plan) and that there is value in people being able to conveniently stream sermons (also in the development plan), but getting people plugged into smaller communities and applying their talents took higher priority.

In addition, I plan on adding functionality for our staff to send out a newsletter to help with keeping people in the loop as well as some sort of prayer request system.

DJ: How do you get your attenders to get connected into this Facebook app?

Yeeland: The last few Sundays, we've made a few announcements and had laptops set up next to booths where people can talk to our leaders about the ways they can serve.

DJ: How well has it worked for your church so far?

Yeeland: It's hard to say because the application only had its debut about three weeks ago.  The response for its usability and familiarity seems to be fairly positive so far.

DJ: How can another church use your Facebook app? Does it cost anything?

Yeeland: I'd say the best thing to do is contact me [email yeeland(at)gmail.com].  It's too early to offer it to other churches as it is today because some things are still experimental and we're still trying to figure out what is useful and what is not.  I'd prefer to add more functionality that we've thoroughly tested before we open it up to everyone because I want to ensure that we're offering a robust, stable solution with a solid feature set.  It will take some time, but I can see this happening several months from now. Since we're not ready to offer it to everyone, I think it's too early to talk about costs yet.

DJ: Yeeland, thanks for taking the time to respond to this interview! Thrilled to hear how Facebook is better connecting those in your community!

Comments

[Christian Web Trends]

So, whatever happened to the Vox Facebook ap? Is it still around?

- Paul