Here are a few notes from the Social Media workshop at the Sticky Church conference hosted by Suncrest last week. Countless media exist, and the experience of our group was varied, so we decided to focus on a few major SM ideas. Handout available here.

Why suggest the church use Social Media? It is a fact that being online has become a natural communication channel in today’s culture. Our approach is that we want to go where people are gathering, not just expecting them all to come to us.

A few ways the church can implement Social Media:

1. website

• Podcast your sermon

2. blogging

• Lead Pastor blogging tips from Greg Lee included: Find an Audience, a Groove, a Voice, a Conversation, a Partner

3. facebook

• Create a church facebook page, invite attenders to join in

4. twitter

• Microblogging tool that has grown over 1000% in the last year
• Similar to blogging except 140 characters or less

5. tokbox

• Especially good for online small groups – also demo’d at workshop to bring in 3 Panel members listed below.

Panel Interview – I met all 3 using Social Media

DJ Chuang (Upper Left)
Spoke on new technologies and helping church leaders become aware of them. He oversees Digital @ Leadership Network, a blog dedicated to this very topic.

Tony Steward (Lower Right)
Shared some powerful lifechange stories (from social media sources) he’s been able to hear in his role as online community pastor at lifechurch.tv.

Cynthia Ware (Upper Right)
Talked to us about social media traits/values shaping ministry. A few values she discussed were – Interactivity, Decentralization and Mobility of Social Media.

Social media is not an end in itself, but a tool that can be leveraged for Kingdom advancement.

Suncrest had the pleasure of hosting the STICKY CHURCH Conference on Tuesday. It was such a blessing to host AND participate. I had the chance to meet tweets and leaders from across the country. I am such a student at heart, I always love learning from others who have experienced success. Some take-aways from this conference for me…

What’s the Big Idea?

Dave Ferguson, Lead Pastor of Community Christian Church, opened the conference with an observation…

•    When more information leads to less action, that’s a big, big problem.
Solution?
•    You give people one big idea, there’s a better chance that it’ll stick
•    Big idea can lead to speedy obedience
•    Church should not just be a place of information, but a place of transformation

Turning Attendees into Advocates: The Sticky Church Paradigm

Larry Osborne, Lead Pastor of North Coast Church, says, “the stickiest thing you’ve got in your church are close and tight personal relationships.”  And what really struck me was his comment,“’at least they got a good start’ was not what Jesus meant in the parable of the sower.” BAM! Has your church become more worried about who was coming in, ignoring who was already there? Larry shared the new priorities that helped turn North Coast around and the lessons he’s learned. If we can’t learn from him, we just aren’t trying.

Missed a few sessions because I had the privilege of leading a workshop on Leveraging Social Media, with Greg Lee. Will post on that soon.

The North Coast team was a blast to work with and has epic organizational capacity and coordinated efforts with our own Cindy Barker! The result was a smooth-flowing conference that impacted hundreds of church leaders with fresh ideas on how to further God’s kingdom.  Loved meeting all of the North Coast bunch and look forward to staying connected with them on Twitter.

Does it matter how many people are coming through YOUR front door if YOUR back door is wide open?

There are plenty of ways to get people to come to church.  Keeping them there is another matter.  Many of our churches seem more like Teflon than Velcro.  So what will it take to make your church Sticky???

Find out at the One-Day Special Sticky Church Conference hosted by Suncrest Christian Church!!

Sticky Church is a “can’t miss” event with main speakers Larry Osborne, Dave Ferguson and Scott Chapman! The reasonable cost also includes 12 practical workshops! Check it out and register now – just click on the picture.

Hope to see you on March 31st!