What Is Your Church Communicating? Part 2

Today, a different perspective features the second part of last week’s guest blog by Mrs. Jessica English. Jonathan and Jessica English are on assignment in God’s Kingdom, serving Family Worship Center (CHC) in Griffin, Georgia. In this conclusion on church communications in our digital age, you’ll learn some valuable information.

Let me rehearse some of last week’s content for a moment. Remember that an online platform is almost a necessity for churches and ministries in our technological times. Such a means of ministry gives more relevance for connecting with younger generations of people that need to hear your message. The online platform takes you where they are. Remember, you can make excuses or you can make progress. It’s your choice. Help is available if you’re willing to reach out. Now, let’s pick back up with some fresh ideas for those in need.

Immediately Jump Start Your Online Presence With These Quick Tips:

Set up your social media accounts. Instagram and/or Facebook pages are usually good social media platforms for churches. You can either hire a professional company to do this for you or you might have a volunteer in your church that would be willing to do it. A word of caution on volunteers: make sure they will portray your church in a professional and positive light. You can get an idea of how they will do by looking at their personal social media pages. Do they share inappropriate posts or like and comment in a negative way to others? Do they use good grammar and punctuation? These are things I would be concerned about if I knew they were going to be managing a page for the church.
With your online platform, use professional images and graphics that you have proper legal permissions to use. For integrity’s sake, you can not simply use any image you find on the internet. Lightstock is a great low-cost place for photos, vectors and video footage for ministry projects. As well, there are several great websites such as Unsplash, Creation Swap, Freely, and Pexels, which offer high-quality images for free.
Post regularly. Once your accounts are setup, post regularly. The more often the better but even once per week is better than nothing if you are short-handed and doing a lot yourself. Invite friends to like your pages and try to encourage your church members to be involved on your social media accounts as well. Ask them to “check-in” before you start services each week. Surprisingly, this can generate conversations with their online friends who may not have known about your church. This can then lead to them being invited and in the pew one Sunday soon.
Set up your Google and Bing local listings. This will help your local church show up on the search engine results map.
Get a website. This can get expensive, time-consuming and a bit complicated but there are professional web development companies that are willing to work with most budgets. Being able to post sermons online and share them through social media is another GREAT way to communicate the message of the church through the use of technology. Other ways churches are using websites is for sharing upcoming events and newsletters that are regularly emailed.

Let me finalize my thoughts. What does your online presence say about your church or ministry? I can tell you from experience that people rarely just drive by a church building and say “Oh, I think I want to go in and try them out!” More than likely they will need to feel some sort of connection before they ever step foot inside. That connection might come from a church member personally inviting them, but it is also highly likely to come from them connecting with your online platform. They might see a post from a friend in their social media newsfeed about your church or latest sermon series. They might like your social media page and begin commenting or sharing your posts. They could even hear your sermons on your website and experience the anointing of the Holy Spirit. The point is that everything a church does communicates something in some way, whether it is in the form of their printed bulletins, the church website, or the outside signage (or lack thereof). These communications must speak loudly what you want them to hear, whatever that message might be.