Facing Facebook – Part 2 of 3 (Outreach?)

This week I have been undertaking a 3 part series on ministry trends I have observed on Facebook. Yesterday I looked at the demographics of Facebook. Today I want to talk about the power of Facebook as an extension of daily church ministry.

2 – Outreach? A few churches and parachurch organizations have found Facebook to be a decent place to post content from a Sunday morning sermon, or from a Christian broadcast or publication. I would encourage the church to look at Facebook as a place to get into the community as well. Think of it less as an extension to the church sanctuary, and more an extension of that visit at a coffee shop.

I ran into the power of Facebook in those “ministry moments” a few months ago. We had a young man in our youth group who was dealing with some of the tough struggles that seem to plague most in the teenage years. He started a Facebook session with one of our female youth workers, asking for guidance. Following our “basic rules of youth engagement,” she thought it best that he deal with these issues with one of the male youth leaders.

She sent me a quick Facebook chat message and encouraged me to drop a “Hey-Howzit-Going” message to this teen. I did, and was able to enter into a dialogue with him about the issues that were plaguing him. He continued to talk to me, and the female leader in separate conversations.

Little did he know, but the female leader and I were also using Facebook chat to coordinate the messages we gave to him. He was able to get a unified response, and we (the leaders) were able to get some added support as we provided guidance.

We didn’t have a “ministry on Facebook,” we just did what the church has done since its inception. We took a message of hope to wherever a hurting person was hanging out.

It is just a single story, but it illustrates an important point. Don’t build your ministry around sites like Facebook. Build your use of the sites around your ministry.

In this case, I think it would have been far more effective if ministry would have happened in person. If I could have sat down with that young man at Dunn Brothers and listened as he poured out his heart, there would have been opportunity for more healing in his life. But the situation just didn’t present itself that way. I was at home with the kids in bed, and he still had a pile of homework to do. Facebook just presented itself as a good way to exercise a ministry that already existed.

For tomorrow’s study, we will get into groups. But I would love to hear any stories of how you have found social networking fitting seamlessly into your life’s work.