Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

I say ‘yes.’

And so does Jennifer McNally. Her Episcopal Café post, “More Facebook for Lent!,”  offers a well-reasoned and theologically sound alternative to ‘I’m giving up Facebook for Lent.’

Jennifer writes:

In the last year or so, my home church added our presence to Facebook. Church members joined in rapid succession and as a result I also gained new personal Facebook friends. These Facebook connections have brought much to our growth as a community. There is something about knowing someone only through Sunday morning worship that can be quite distancing. The older woman over there, the one in the matching pantsuit, carefully pressed, with pearls around her neck? I say hello to her every week, but I know I don’t have much in common with her. In fact, I know this so well, that I don’t make the time to engage in more than superficial conversation with her. Until Facebook. Thanks to the magic of Facebook, I now know this woman and I both get stupidly excited on the nights Glee is on television. And we strike up a conversation about it one Sunday morning, which leads to coffee, which leads to the discovery that we also love the same books, and music, and guess what? A friendship is born. And the new mother over there? The one who always looks serene and put together? Thanks to Facebook, I know she was up all night with a sick baby, and I know I should offer to watch her daughter for an hour today so she can nap. Suddenly, I have made a small difference in someone’s life.”

Making a small difference in someone’s life. How huge is that?

Earlier this week, I learned that a former colleague is stepping down from a volunteer leadership position, in part because:

I am not a modern marketer. I don’t tweet, twitter, or Facebook, and am not familiar with the new electronic communications developments that seem to change daily. My marketing accomplishments came mostly from developing personal relationships, enhanced by, but not dependent on, print, mail-order media, and the media advertising of another era.”

As a marketing communications professional, I would argue that there is similarity between successful ‘print, mail-order media, and the media advertising of another era” and social media. Developing personal relationships is the common denominator, and for congregations and organizations with limited funds for marketing and communications, a successful Facebook strategy can go a long way towards building relationships. 

What’s your experience?