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Top Social Media Tools in Ministry

February 3, 2012 By 2 Comments

Media Survey Results: Part 4

Recently, Rick Warren commissioned pastors to dominate social media. (Read my post about it here)

Interestingly, when we recently conducted our survey on Christian leaders and resources they are using to impact their ministry, we didn’t see a lot of ground being made in the world of social media.

Unlike books, authors, and podcasts, where there are clear “favourites” emerging, social media in general doesn’t seem to provide any clear-cut “winners”.

This may be because the field is growing so quickly that leaders haven’t had the chance to sort out who is worth “following” or “friending”. Then again, perhaps it’s simply that social media in general has yet provide the ministry impact leaders are looking for.

At any rate, here is a summary of what we found.

Which 3 BLOGS, Christian or secular, are currently having the most impact or relevance to your ministry?

Top 10 responses:

  1. Seth Godin
  2. Rick Warren
  3. Steven Furtick
  4. Andy Stanley
  5. Catalyst
  6. Ed Stetzer
  7. Mark Driscoll
  8. Rachel Held Evans
  9. Relevant Magazine
  10. Scot McKnight
  • If applicable, what 3 TWITTER accounts do you find most relevant to your ministry?
  1. @RickWarren
  2. @CSLewisDaily
  3. @PastorMark (Mark Driscoll)

Note that no other Twitter account received more than one mention!

  • If applicable, what 3 FACEBOOK pages, groups, or individuals do you find most relevant to your ministry?

No answer received more than one mention. It is notable, however, that a respondent’s home church page was cited many times.

  • If applicable, what 3 YOUTUBE channels do you find most relevant to your ministry?

Only Northpoint’s YouTube channel received more than one mention

  • If applicable, what 3 LINKEDIN brands, groups or individuals do you find most relevant to your ministry?

No answer received more than one mention.

  • On a scale from 1 – 5 (where 5 is most important), how important are the following social media vehicles for your ministry?

Facebook   3.48
YouTube    3.21
Twitter        2.12
LinkedIn      1.88

What can we conclude from these findings? At this point, only that social media is an emerging tool, not a primary tool, for the leaders that took part in our survey.

This was not a scientific survey; it serves only to give you a quick snapshot as to what social media have been making an impact on Christian leaders in Canada in 2011.

The final question we asked gave opportunity for respondents to submit suggestions on what they would like to see us include in future surveys. We received great feedback, including sermon series ideas, governance models, and spiritual health.

If you find this type of information to be of value, please reply to this post and let me know what you’d like to see, or DM me on Twitter at @WScottCochrane.

What else would you like us to survey?

Filed Under: Ministry, Poll Tagged With: , , , , ,

3 Questions to Help Advance Rick Warren’s Bold Twitter Vision

January 13, 2012 By 1 Comment

Rick Warren recently shared a vision that has tremendous implications for the local church. With half a million of his own Twitter followers, Warren stated, “I want pastors to dominate Twitter. We don’t want celebrities dominating these things; we want pastors using this for the Good News.”

But amidst the thrill of this vision, a note of caution must be sounded. There is a course correction some of us may need to make in order to see Warren’s thrilling vision become reality.

When we tweet, we need to be sure we’re not perceived as “posturing” when we intend to be “proclaiming”.

PosturingI’m as guilty as anyone in this regard.

It’s not the intent, but with 140 characters or less, if we’re not careful, our tweets can be misconstrued as posturing.

And ultimately this could diminish our social media impact.

But I believe we can avoid the appearance of posturing if we ask 3 questions when we tweet;

Question #1: Could the “heart” of this tweet be misunderstood?

An example would be when we state something like, “So grateful for the 5,000 new people who showed up at our church last weekend,” or “Humbled to be able to baptize 12,000 people in a single service,” etc.

Even though we may not be intending to grandstand it could be perceived that way. We need to be careful.

Question #2: Does this tweet tell the whole story?

Twitter is not the place to air our church’s dirty laundry. But sometimes it can appear that nothing ever goes wrong in ministry.

Perhaps for every tweet that begins, “Pumped for…”, “Stoked by…” or “Excited to…” we need the occasional tweet that begins, “Concerned about…”

Question #3: Am I tweeting about God’s activity beyond my ministry?

It’s only natural that the front row seat God has granted each one of us will be reflected in our Twitter feed. But without intending to, we can be leaving the impression that we’re not aware of, or enthused about, God’s activity beyond the scope of our own church.

We might get more long-term mileage out of Twitter when we leverage it to tell a broader Kingdom story.

Bottom line? Let’s always be mindful of the limitations of 140 characters, and strive to ensure that our message reflects our intentions.

Because when it comes to Kingdom advancement via social media the potential is huge! So with wisdom, discernment and boldness, let’s go for it!

Filed Under: Church, Social Media Tagged With: , , ,

If You Could Ask One Question…

February 23, 2010 By 3 Comments

When I told my friends on Twitter that I’d be spending the next couple of days with the lead pastors from six of Canada’s most influential churches, I mentioned that if anyone was interested I’d take their leadership questions into the meeting and report back.

Boy, was there interest!

This morning, as the breakfast dishes were being cleared away, I announced that I was going to take the next few minutes of our discussion away from our established agenda, and would ask them to respond to the questions submitted by my Twitter friends. These leaders rose to the challenge, and a sampling of their responses is presented for you here.

One side-note: One of the key values of this gathering is that of “safety”. Although you could probably figure out who these guys are, simply know that these leaders have an average of 25 years lead pastor experience, and that their congregations are among the largest and most influential in Canada.

Here, then, are a few highlighted questions and responses…

Question: “What is the most important thing that is affecting the faith of the emerging gen in Canada?”

Answers:

  • Connectedness: the drive to be meaningfully connected in community is a profound motivator in the emerging generation
  • Authenticity: The emerging generation constantly asks, “is it real?”
  • Sinful lifestyles: On the “negative” side, this generation is sometimes shockingly tolerant of sin. Some of this is a pattern learned from their church-going parents!

Question: Can (should) churches ever get to 50% of resources focused internally and 50% externally? How?

Answers:

  • The numbers game is not the way to go. An experienced leader would not reduce this down to a percentage formula.
  • The whole deal is God’s. It’s about stewardship.
  • The question reveals a poor ecclesiology, common today. The view that you can even divide a church’s mission as “internal” and “external” is not what the biblical church is all about. We are the mission

Question: “What is 1 thing you need to keep you in ministry for the long haul that you’re not getting right now?”

Answers:

  • Living the life I teach about. If there’s a disconnect between what I teach and what I do, I won’t make it.
  • I need to constantly be asking, “What is my support system to fulfill my calling?”

Thanks to those who submitted questions. The next time I gather with a group of leaders like this I’ll let you know, and we can do this again!

Filed Under: Action, Canadian, Community, Leadership, Missional Tagged With: , , , , , ,