Churches on Facebook

Myspace is out.  Facebook is in.  Silicon Valley geeks have been saying this for the past 3 months.  And now the numbers are starting to show it.

There are plenty of reasons for this - less spam, better privacy features, unobtrusive ads, cleaner UI, and truer identities.  But the biggest factor is the platform.  Any regular joe (literally) can create an application on top of Facebook's social graph and have access to its 30 million users.

Of course, lots of churches are already taking advantage of Facebook groups for community-building and discussions.  Here's a great post on what you can (and cannot do) with a Facebook group.  But I'm talking about outreach opportunities, through the Facebook platform. 

3 churches have already launched applications on Facebook.  LifeChurch.tv, Renaissance Church in  Ontario, and New Minas Baptist Church in Nova Scotia.

1) LifeChurch's Facebook app was actually built by us (the MyChurch.org team).  This app puts the following graphic on your profile:

It's a countdown to their next "Church Experience" which is their own virtual church service.  It currently has 1600 installs on Facebook.  And thousands more have clicked on the Church Experience after seeing this app on a friend's profile.

2) Renaissance Church's Facebook app is simpler.  It just updates Facebook users with the latest church bulletin:

3) New Minas Baptist's Facebook app displays recent sermons from their church right on your profile.  They also have an archive of sermons going back to 2005 within their Facebook application.

These 3 early adopter churches know that Facebook is fertile ground for evangelism.  Imagine church members spreading and sharing last week's sermon.  Or inviting friends to next week's church picnic.  Instantly, effortlessly, and electronically. 

The social network and social graph that Facebook established can be a tremendous outreach platform.  Imagine how many non-believers LifeChurch.tv is reaching with just those 1600 installs multiplied by the number of friends that each installed user has.

Part of my earlier disclaimer that I built LifeChurch's Facebook app has another disclaimer (and shameless plug).  We created the 'My Church' application, which allows any church to have its own social network within Facebook.  Your church's badge shows up on your profile, and you can share sermons, events, and pictures through Facebook.

How else can we spread the good news on Facebook?  Either with a Facebook application or without?  What other ideas can the developers and early adopters of these Facebook church apps implement?

Comments

[tony sheng]

Joe, thanks for the links to those three churches that are establishing innovative and creative Facebook presences. I think however it might be too early to completely rule out MySpace, especially among students.

The link below [you may have seen it before] is a very intriguing article about class divisions between MySpace and Facebook.

http://www.danah.org/papers/essays/ClassDivisions.html

[IndyChristian]

Great catch, and well said, Joe. [And Tony, thanks.]

These types of things are excellent for our "New Media for Urban Change" course at CBC. Keep up the great work.

[Joe Suh]

Thanks for the comments.

Tony, that was a great piece by Danah Boyd and certainly reiterates your point that churches should be on Myspace as well.

Forgive my hyperbole. We shouldn't rule out Myspace. And Myspace will be a popular site for a very long time. In fact, I'm anxiously awaiting their rumored platform so that I can see what apps I can create for Myspace.

[Cynthia]

I don't know if it's just me or not but I feel like I've seen the Facebook ads gradually change since I joined. I've been dreading the prospect that Facebook will erode because one of my favorite aspects has been how clean the UI feels with no junk staring at me. Joe, am I imagining it, or are they slowly adding in more and questionable?

[Joe Suh]

Cynthia, I think I've seen the ad quality go down on Facebook as well. Some Christians and churches won't go near Myspace because of its ads, and I wouldn't be surprised if we start hearing the same thing about Facebook.

Whether a church should establish a presence on Myspace and Facebook in the first place would make for a great post and great discussion. Perhaps I should take a step back and pose that question for a future topic. Or you can post it :)

[Justin Long]

While I am a great believer in technology and use it daily, I think that to say "if you church isn't on the Internet, it doesn't exist" is a bit extreme. You cannot bless people in a tangible way (e.g. clothe the naked, feed the hungry, minister to the sick, help the poor, etc.) easily via the Net. The church needs to consider the geographic area that it is located in, and the people within that area, and how it can bless the people around it. This does not necessarily require being on the Internet. There are lots of ways to bless a community and let them know you exist.

[stephen shields]

justin,

That's a good point. I am in the midst of researching a writing a chapter for a forthcoming Crossway book on how churches are utilizing New Media for Social Justice/Compassion ministries and have been initially disappointed by what I've found. It just hasn't appeared that many churches are being very creative in this space. But then as I've reflected on this, it's made more sense to me that - duh - the types of folks these ministries are trying to reach aren't typically wired! Now this may change in future as the cost of entry continues to decline, but right now the best use of New Media will be in fund raising, volunteer solicitation, volunteer community, and in strategizing approaches, not in the direct service aspect of these ministries.

[Billy Ritchie]

Joe. Read with interest your comments above. As a keen facebook follower and seeing a number of our church join a group that we set up I decided to take it further and set up MyChurch on facebook. However it does not seem to be stable within facebook. People joining through facebook do not seem to transfer to my church site. Also we can not seem to get our page up on facebook it just returns an error message. Is this common? Thanks

[Joe Suh]

Billy, thanks for the heads up. The issue is fixed now and you should be able to see your church on Facebook

Regarding your other question that Facebook users don't translate to your MyChurch.org page - we don't force them to register on MyChurch.org. So you can have a lot more people on your Facebook church page, and only a few (or none!) on your MyChurch church page... I think that's the right way to do it, what do you think?

[Paul Kuzma]

Thoughts mentioned by Cynthia and Joe regarding the sliding slope of ads on Facebook have been noticed by myself and others. Our Youth Pastor was promoting Facebook for the Youth Group, then noticed some skimpily clad women on ads and is now pulling the group OFF of Facebook.

Any thoughts on the chances of getting Facebook to stay clean?