The most robust people-connecting organization in the world is Facebook. This online tool is doing more to develop community and relationships than anything else in human history. As a church planter, have you ever considered what Facebook gets right?
Stop and consider how well it connects people:
- Facebook’s population is almost 4 times greater than the USA’s. The population of the United States is nearing 319 million—Facebook boasts over 1.59 billion users. [ref]
- 66.1 percent of Facebook users engage with it daily. Engagement is key to developing community and Facebook has unlocked how to bring people together. [ref]
- Degrees of separation between every Facebook user in the world: 3.57. Six degrees of separation? Not anymore! This number has been shrinking over time as Facebook brings the world closer together. [ref]
As church leaders, we need to learn from every corner about how people connect in our culture. In a very real sense, the local church was a prevailing social network in the past. It was the place where people went to meet others, get the news of what was going on and socialize. Connection has always been at the core of what the church “does.”
Church leadership guru Carey Nieuwhof talks about how engagement—not attendance—will drive church growth in the future. Prevailing churches need to focus on how they get people plugged into the mission and life of the church, instead of getting people to be an audience at a “show.” Facebook is literally an engagement machine. We need to study it closely to understand what they are doing to connect people.
What Facebook Gets Right
Here are some engagement lessons from Facebook that your church should look at integrating into your strategy in the coming year.
1) Help groups be groups.
Facebook is really a network of smaller social networks. One of the “stickiest” features is the hundreds of thousands of sub-groups on a wide variety of topics. Each of the self-governed groups has their own culture and style, but they all serve to draw people together.
The genius of this strategy is that at our core people love to gather in groups. We know from scripture that we’re designed to be relational beings…we’re always reaching to make a connection with other humans. Facebook leverages that instinct.
