Digital Ministry

Things are changing at Facebook. On January 11, 2018, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook is moving “from focusing on helping you find relevant content to helping you have more meaningful social interactions.” Many people are still trying to figure out what this means. Businesses and organizations are already working hard to keep their customers and communities engaged and their posts seen.

It’s tradition to make new plans and set new goals at the start of a new year. From home to work to church, pastors and church leaders are asking themselves: "What do I want to do to make this year better than last year?

Instagram has become the ‘place to be’ for social sharing of images and videos for individuals, businesses, and organizations like churches. With nearly a billion users, it also seems to be the place for fun. Ask any millennial and they will say Instagram is where they spend their time following and catching up on the news of the day and with their own social circles.

What makes one social network stand out from the rest in our techno-saturated, app-centric digital world? Instagram has taken the world by storm and created legions of devoted users and followers. 2017 saw its member base surge to 800 million individual users and 25 million business users.

The hugely popular YouVersion Bible app was created to put the Bible in everyone’s hands via their smartphones and handheld devices. Today, the app has multiple features that make engaging and interacting with church members during services easy and fun. This free app is the #1 downloaded Bible app online and has been installed on over 300 million devices. People love it and use it daily because it easily keeps the Bible in the palm of their hands, is available in thousands of languages, and offers many valuable ways to connect with the Word of God on a daily basis.

Facilities caring for children frequently include a child check-in process to keep the kids in their care safe. These processes range from the use of pen and paper to an electronic system with kiosks, a dedicated check-in area, or mobile equipment. Organizations are regularly expected to expand past these initial check-in offerings, to support new growth and keep current, tech-savvy families engaged.

Despite the wide reports of 40% of people going to church, the actual percentage of regular church attendance is a little less than 18%. Yet, it's very common for pastors to see unfamiliar faces on Sunday morning. New people do come to churches, but they don't seem to come back. While some of them were never going to become regular attendees, some might have returned if they had a good first experience. One way to help stem the tide of lost opportunities is with church connection cards.

Searching online for information about people, places, products, and organizations is commonplace in our digital age. Most of us are doing multiple searches daily or even hourly. Tools like Google Places and Yelp provide valuable information about the establishments we want to visit, like restaurants, stores, schools, and even churches.