David Drinnon is an associate pastor and the Director of IT & Websites at Second Baptist Church. Their website, second.org, integrates many different technologies and social media is an important aspect of the content they offer on their website. I asked David some specific questions about his experience with social media and websites for a large, multi-site church body, and here is the interview for us all to learn from. Thanks David for taking the time to share your unique experiences!
What is the most common question you get from church staff about the value of social media for your organization’s goals? What’s the most common question you get from church members?
The most common question I get from our staff is, “What value does social media bring to our church?” It is a great question. Many people view social media as a time waster. After seeing posts like “off to a breakfast meeting” or “working for Jesus in my jammies this a.m.” (all real posts on Facebook as I write this), wouldn’t you conclude that you have better things to do? Nevertheless, it does have value and I believe skeptics fail to make a distinction between its common use and its potential use. People commonly use social media as intended by its creators…a tool for self-promotion. They all ask the same questions: “What are you doing?” (Twitter), “What’s on your mind?” (Facebook), “What are you working on now? (LinkedIn), and no one describes it better than You Tube, “Broadcast Yourself.” The Christian ethic demands a different use of these tools. I think Lee LeFever in his video Social Networking in Plain English rightly identifies the potential of these tools. He says that social media allows us to see connections that are hidden in the real world. As a church, this gives us significant insights into the relationships of our members and visitors and becomes a powerful tool for communicating prayer requests, encouragement, birthday wishes, invitations to attend church events, and most importantly evangelism opportunities. The big challenge before our church now, is know how best to use these tools to maximize their full potential.
The most common question I get from church members is, “How do I ensure that my child is not doing something they shouldn’t online?” Most parents are specifically referring to social media since that is the hub of activity for many young people. Thankfully, I am glad they are asking. Pornography is just one of several issues parents are concerned about, cyber-bullying and predators to name a few. To equip our parents, we have done several seminars on internet safety and parenting in the digital age. We also have a great counseling center staffed by licensed professionals who work with individuals and families facing relational or addictive problems.
You’ve done event blogging to gain a wider audience for the impact of your youth retreats and your blog entry showing the results with web statistics and a map of unique visitors is a powerful visual on the impact. What’s your favorite story that resulted from the event-based blog’s reach and impact?
Wow, that is a loaded question. So many great things resulted from the on-site coverage of our student Beach Retreats. I think my favorite story that resulted directly from our efforts with the blog was a comment shared by a parent during one of our live blogcasts. She wrote,
“I shared the Beach Retreat Blog with a nurse at work today, and she looked at it for at least 30 minutes, asking lots of questions. She is very far from Christ. It was so neat to share the Blog and pics with a coworker, and sense God’s Presence working.
This embodies everything we hoped to accomplish with the blog. The blog connected parents with their students. The event gave opportunities for parents to tell others about our church, and more importantly it gave the occasion for our parents to share with others the good news of Jesus Christ, the very mission of our church.
From reading your blog entry on Equip Them titled “Management & Leadership in a Multi-Site Church,” I learned that Second Baptist is a little different from some churches in that it is a multi-site church. How has social media and website technology helped you unify the church even with five campuses?
It is still too early to see any measurable impact that social media has had on the unity of our church. It wasn’t until earlier this year that we made a strategic move by redesigning our website to better address the multisite nature of our church. Our prior website emphasized our oneness rather than our multiplicity of locations and our site suffered as a result. The navigation and the amount of information made the website unwieldy and complex for our visitors. Our new website does a better job of balancing the two. It is one design across all locations with one home page, yet every location also has its own campus home page that are accessible from the unified home page This allows visitors to choose the location relevant to their needs. As we extend our web presence, we will continuously look for opportunities on how we can leverage the native features of the social media sites to balance our unity and diversity.
Posted by ionnonprofits 
Posted by annegentle 
Posted by ionnonprofits 
