At some point in the very near future, I’m going to release a video series explaining all the benefits pastors can take advantage of by learning how to use Facebook.

It’s one of the most effective tools pastors have available to them, and yet one of the most underutilized. It seriously drives me crazy that more pastors aren’t taking advantage of it, but I don’t have time for all that today.

I only have time to talk to you about why you should create a Facebook group for your church.

First, let’s talk about the difference between a Facebook group and a Facebook page because most of your churches probably have a page, but may not have a group.

Here’s why you need both:

Your Facebook page is primarily meant to engage with those in your community who don’t attend your church.

Some of you need to read that last sentence again, because it may be the most important thing you get out of this post.

Your Facebook group is primarily meant to engage with those in your community who attend your church.

Chances are many of you have been using your Facebook page to communicate with your congregation, and when you do that you miss out on reaching your community because they are two totally different audiences.

My hope is that you want to reach those both inside and outside of your church. If you do, then you need to have both a page and a group.

So, the main reason you need a group is so you can communicate directly to your congregation.

Here’s a few things you may want to communicate through the group.

1. Announcements – Stop spending so much time on announcements during service, and start posting them in your Facebook group. If you make announcements during service, chances are most people will forget the details before the end of service. By posting them in a group, people can go back and look whenever they need the information.
2. Prayer Requests – I have absolutely nothing against prayer requests, but in my experience during the service isn’t the best time to take them. I came to this conclusion one Sunday morning when a lady asked prayer for The Heartbreak Kid who was fighting for the WWF Championship that night. Have your church utilizing the group for prayer requests.
3. Needs – It’s my understanding that the early church took care of each other’s needs and shared their burdens. Why not bring that back? Encourage church members to post their needs on the group page. Most Christ followers should be willing to help if they can.
4. Serving Opportunities – We don’t say we need volunteers, we say we have opportunities to serve in our church. Take a picture of a volunteer holding a baby in the nursery, and post in the group talking about the opportunity to love on some babies. That’s how you recruit volunteers. I go further by personally messaging church members who I know aren’t serving and asking them if they’d like to start. If they say no, I kick them out of the group. Just kidding, but I’d like to sometimes.
5. Small Groups/Sunday School Info – How many times have you had a group leader or Sunday School teacher want stage time or an announcement to promote their class? It’s never a smart move to allow that from the stage, but they can all promote on the group page.
6. Next Steps From the Sermon – This is another major reason I’d want to have a Facebook group, so you can encourage the church to take steps based on the messages you preach every week. What if on Monday, you asked in the group what was the biggest takeaway from the message? What if during the week you give them a set of scripture to read to prepare them for Sunday? There’s so many opportunities here.

I could go on and on, but hopefully by now you realize you need a group. If not, I have a post next week that will be sure to convince you. Next week I’ll be sharing how I used my church group to get a post from our church page to reach over 2,600 people in my community. Talk to you soon.