Your Parish, Community or Organization on Social Media

Part 2 of Convincing a Ministry Leader to Use Social Media

Before we encourage our ministry leaders to use social media as part of our organization’s ministry, it is important that we have a good reason to pursue this. Social media is not an end in itself when it comes to ministry. Advancing the mission of the organization has to be the first priority for you, your ministry leader and eventually whoever will administer the social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.)

I have worked with several pastors and leaders of religious communities to help them consider using social media. A few were on social media already and wanted to learn how to use it for ministry. Others weren’t on social media, but felt they needed more information and a better reason than “everyone else was doing it” to try it for ministry.

To pastors I say something like this: You have a wonderful parish. You have a faith-filled community that is generous, loving and committed to building the kingdom of God on earth. Social media is a way to share that goodness directly with others who may be looking for such a community especially at those critical outreach times of the year: Christmas, Ash Wednesday and Easter when they are most likely to be looking for a church. It is also a way to affirm your parishioners by sharing their activities and accomplishments. It is a tool with which faith lived in the everyday can be shared and celebrated.

To leaders of religious communities I say: Your consecrated life is a gift to the Church. Your charism and the members who live it bring God’s love, mercy, goodness, and your life of prayer (or whatever their charism is) to everyone they meet, every work they do. Social media will help you to continue sharing your charism with many others. It makes you and your charism available and accessible to people who might not meet you otherwise including people who may be considering religious life.

A similar approach can be used with organizations. Name your mission first and consider how social media can advance it to the audiences you wish to reach.

In this approach the focus is on ministry. Usually the first social media platform chosen is Facebook but our goal is not to get on Facebook. Our goal in using social media is to take our ministry directly to the people we know as well as those we want to reach 24/7. People have to visit our websites; but social media goes out to them first.  That is its power.

If we are convinced of the mission value of social media, we will be effective advocates for its use in our organizations.

Your comments are welcome!