More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Nona Jones
Read between
July 8 - July 13, 2020
In this age, church online is no longer an option; it’s an imperative.
It doesn’t matter how many followers you have if those followers aren’t following Jesus.
Indicators of a post-Christian society include dramatically decreased percentages of people who pray, study the Bible, claim a religious affiliation, and attend church.
the percentage of Americans who identify as Christian has dropped twelve percentage points.4 And lest you missed that, allow me to clarify. It didn’t drop 12 percent. It dropped 12 percentage points, from 77 percent of the US population to 65 percent.
The data links the decline to one main thing: a perceived lack of relevance. And relevance isn’t only a question of your message; it’s also a question of your method.
Seventy-seven percent of the people who join growing churches are already Christians, and many had a previous church home that they left.
In other words, the vast majority of local church growth is driven by local church death.
40 percent of Americans report attending church on any given Sunday, but actual attendance is closer to 20 percent.
If the church experience continues to be limited to a physical address you visit, when today’s generation lives online, the trends will only get worse.
A social media plan focuses on getting people to the building for a couple of hours every weekend,
social ministry strategy focuses on how to help them grow in their faith through social technology after they leave.
Has our definition of ministry become so focused on the building that we can’t change lives outside of it?
Whether you build an authentic church community is less a question of the modality of church and more a question of the intention of the church.
in Matthew 28:19, he made the mission of the Church quite clear. He said, “Now, therefore, stand and wait for people to come to your building on Sunday morning, then give them a great sermon to hold them over until the next Sunday.”
Imagine what would happen if instead of waiting for people to find us, we went out to find them? This is the foundational principle of discipleship: going out into the world to make followers of Christ.
the power of the church is in being a community people belong to, whether or not they show up at the building we gather at every weekend.
Discipleship is the process of a more mature, disciplined person coming alongside a less experienced, less disciplined person to help them achieve a goal they have set for themselves.
a social ministry strategy focuses on building relationships and facilitating connections between and among people so that discipleship can happen.
“How do we create an experience that facilitates connection with and among people?”
Social media should be social; it should invite multidirectional communication. It should invite conversation.
Discipleship is the process of teaching people by coming alongside them, assessing their mode of learning, and meeting them where they are with the information they need in the way they receive it best.
The Great Commission is about helping people learn God’s truth so they can apply it to their lives.
Teaching is more than sharing content; it’s fostering understanding.
Imagine what would happen if you intentionally built an online church campus in such a way that the people connected to your ministry connected with people they know and you were able to make disciples of those people by teaching them how to live out their faith daily?
People are far more likely to visit a church where they have built relationships than one where they simply saw an advertisement.
How videos are titled and categorized is highly important because people use YouTube to learn how to do things or why things are done a certain way, so titling your sermon on forgiveness “December 31, 2019 Worship Service” isn’t going to pop up if someone searches “How do I forgive someone who hurt me?”
Instead, title it as an answer to a question to get the best results.
YouTube’s primary use is as a search engine for video content.
research has shown that visual images are forty times more likely to be shared than text,
Instagram’s primary intended use is visual storytelling, which means posts should spark interest and conversation, not just consumption.
one of the most powerful opportunities Twitter presents is the ability to engage in trending conversations and to use hash-tags as a tool to insert a voice of hope, faith, and reason into conversations that would otherwise deteriorate into arguments.
My primary rule of social ministry is this: if you’re too busy to engage, you’re too busy to post.
Churches that are successfully using Snapchat tend to use it for three purposes: support, awareness, and connection. Support tends to be offered by way of encouraging Scriptures to keep young people’s minds focused on the goodness of God. Awareness is also important to keep youth up-to-date on events and gatherings where they can connect offline. Connection is fostered by spotlighting youth and celebrating the good things happening in their lives.
To qualify as a social platform, the platform must go beyond sharing information to facilitating multidirectional communication among and between users.
When it comes to something as serious as sharing the gospel and transforming lives, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Go where the people are, and integrate ministry into their routine.
Social ministry happens when we meet people’s needs where they are, even if they never set foot in our buildings.
church is not a program to watch; it’s a community of people to belong to.
Your online church should have a clear, compelling vision driving its creation to provide form to its existence.
We don’t learn how to swim spiritually in the shallow end of easily digestible content; we learn how to swim in the deep end that challenges us to grow and learn. This requires going beyond posts with encouraging Scriptures to activities such as group Bible studies through Facebook Live or hosting small group meetups organized by neighborhood
Your Facebook campus will be meaningful to people only if they are compelled to engage with the content you post, activities you host, and other people in the community.
Think of your Facebook presence like your online house of worship where your page is your front porch, Live is opening your front door, Groups are your living room and kitchen, and Learning Units are your conversation starters.
The description should answer the questions “Who are we?” “What do we offer you?” and “How can you engage here?”
focus on WIIFM: What’s in it for me?
the cover photo should be people focused, not marketing focused.
I suggest classifying your group type as “social learning” because that classification unlocks a feature called learning units that allows you to organize posts into a unit or series of units
the people in your congregation need to know your campus launch is not just another thing. They need to know it’s a new approach to kingdom-building, and because of that, it’s ministry.
You grow your Facebook campus the same way you grow your real-life campus: tell people it’s there. Constantly.
Campuses that grow steadily make sure people know it’s more than just an extension of your church; it’s their own tool for evangelism.
Some suggested tags for your Facebook campus are prayer requests, fasting, forgiveness, serving, giving, depression, leadership, parenting, sex and love, and Q&A with a pastor.
Welcome people when they join.
