Grow Your Congregation With An Internal Social Media Platform
As the influence of social media continues to grow outside of the walls of the steel building church, it’s time to start thinking of implementing an internal social media to grow your church internally. How would your congregation grow if they could communicate to each other through a private, internal network designed just for them? Prayer lists, community programs, church calendars and youth events get brainstormed, commented upon and photos of the event are all shared with an internal social media.
Seeing the members of your congregation once or twice a week is a very limited amount of time. Internal social media platforms not only gives your congregation a chance to connect, it gives you as a pastor a chance to interact with each of your members more often. If you are a part of a megachurch, it also gives you a chance to interact with your small groups.
Churches, both large and small, have adopted internal platforms encouraging their members to get to know one another outside (or should I say inside) of Sunday sermon. Help your church build a deeper community by adopting an internal program.
Internal social media platforms come in all sizes and price ranges. Most of the pricing schedule design is based on a scale according to your average attendance. The bigger your church is, the more you pay. If you have fewer attendees, your monthly price lowers. There are privacy controls and monitoring for Administrators, just like in popular social media today. These internal programs do not replace your current church website at all, they merely add an offering to your church members to connect within the walls of the church online.
For example, a more popular solution, The City, gives your church’s online community a wide range of assets. With the Giving Module, your members can give at any time, through a secure payment processing system. The Children’s Ministry Module helps families check-in their children at the Children’s Ministry while offering groups for families with children to connect. Keep your entire church informed with email integration that allows you as a pastor to share your upcoming sermons, check in with members and much more.
Platforms like The Table and CXfriends are geared specifically toward churches, designed to enhance the growth and community of the church. Internal social media platforms for businesses outside the church are also a great resource to get internal social media started within your congregation.
Not only do these internal social media platforms give pastors a way to get the message out to the flock, it helps keep track of members. With these platforms, members are in charge of their own profiles, so there is no need to appoint staff members to keep a database of members.
Your steel building church can not fold itself up and live inside the purse and pockets of your members. The mobility of an internal social media platform for your church means your community takes the church with them wherever they go. Members can interact at any and all times of the day or night–creating a larger support system.
Don’t worry. There are privacy and admin controls that are inherent in these programs. Groups select Admins to monitor activity to be sure members are participating in a courteous and giving way. Conversely, pastors are not given full control of the entire platform. Although it may initially ruffle feathers, keeping the responsibility of monitoring in the hands of the administrators, the platform is controlled by the congregation, keeping the power in the hands of the people instead of one leader. Plus, pastors have enough on their plate already.
Consider an internal social media platform for your church so that your members can take your steel building church with them wherever they go. When they need support from their pastor, you will be able to help them, even if you are miles apart from each other.
We want to help Pastors and Churches be the best they can be at Armstrong Steel. Find more tips for growing your church on our Pastors and Churches Network.
Photo courtesy: Osman Kalkaven, Intel Free Press, JamieBrown2011« How Will Your Workshop Survive The Winter?
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