Are you a group leader who connects with members through the week on facebook? Are you a group director that has established a facebook group for your coaching team? Do you have a group twitter or blog? Does your group connect through online bible applications like YouVersion? Are you a group that has created a ning page? If you have other ideas… the rest of us small group leaders would love to hear them. Maybe you know of someone else who’s using Social Media to enhance their ministry? Please have them share their thoughts with us as well.
Just enter in the comments below. This can be an amazing resource for small group ministries!
Posted in: facebook, Internet Tools, Small Group Ministry, Small Groups, Social Media, Twitter, YouVersion
Micah Foster
June 4, 2009
I’ve been trying to figure out how to maximize all these resources to keep graduated seniors engaged when they move away to college. Is it possible to keep them in a small group (electronically)? Not sure – but would be a great experiment.
marybethstockdale
June 6, 2009
Micah – you could set up a facebook group for all who are in college. Then you can mass message them and they can connect w/each other. Sounds like a great idea. We haven’t done that, so far found that at Suncrest the college kids connect with everyone through facebook in general.
Paul Steinbrueck
June 4, 2009
I am Facebook friends with every single person in my small group, so we’re constantly touching base with each other during the week. We also have a Facebook group for our small group. There hasn’t been much activity in the group, but we use the messaging feature in FB groups like an email distribution list.
marybethstockdale
June 4, 2009
Thanks Paul – that’s exactly what I’m looking for. Do you meet weekly? Love this idea!
Paul Steinbrueck
June 4, 2009
We meet every other week. We also do a social activity once a month, and there is a guys night out and girls night out on alternating months. There are also 3 pairs of us who are in 1-on-1 discipleship relationships.
marybethstockdale
June 4, 2009
Nice rhythm for a group. Love your blog BTW!
Jeff Gibson
June 4, 2009
MB-I’ve had a lot of luck getting our small group leaders onto Facebook, and communicating that way. We’ve also used Facebook to promote our connection events and while I don’t know that it has been effective in getting new people to them, it’s a great reminder to small group leaders and staff to keep getting the word about small groups out.
marybethstockdale
June 4, 2009
Jeff – I like how you have the group leaders on facebook. Is that a ‘facebook group’ where you can msg them together? Do you create a facebook event for promotion of the connection events? It would be nice to know how successful that is in reaching ‘ungrouped’ people. Is your whole church encouraged to be on facebook, or is there a fan page for the church?
I’ve used a facebook group for the coaches/group leadership team to communicate. Now it’s mostly to send msgs but we have shared some learnings docs there too.
Jeff Gibson
June 4, 2009
The communication with the group leaders on Facebook has been more relational than instructional, we have a leaders toolbox on our website that they are to visit weekly to get small group business stuff.
We do create a Facebook event for our connection events, and out of the 350 we had at the last event, there was not more than 5 that signed up because of Facebook. We tracked “how did you hear about it” in the registration.
We have a fan page for the church, and our publicity pieces in the bulletin now include a facebook icon with the line, “Also check out the Central Christian Church Facebook page for upcoming events.” Our communications department is using it to advertise events and recap creative elements from the weekend.
CLH
July 13, 2009
Hi
I use email & facebook for my cell – but what do you do about the people who don’t check (or have) email, and those who aren’t on (&/or don’t want to be on) facebook?
C
Nathan
August 24, 2009
I’m thinking of setting up a small group online for a few of my fellow church members who check their computers regularly
it’s a ..
“Local churches and leading parachurch ministries are starting to do this very thing, using new tools like the online Jesus 101 course at http://www.JesusCentral.com. The Jesus 101 course is designed for those willing to study one hour per week for six weeks. Each week covers two lessons requiring approximately 30 minutes each.”
http://legacy.pastors.com/rwmt/article.asp?ArtID=10923
anybody had any luck with anything like this?
marybethstockdale
August 26, 2009
Nathan – I’ve thought about doing an online group for our church, but keep wondering if online makes sense w/people who are close enough to meet face to face. I’m curious if anyone has done this too.