The calling of the church is to bring the Gospel of Jesus to all corners of the world, so that everyone has a chance to come to know God. Digital strategies are key to accomplishing this goal, though many churches are in their infancy in using digital strategies, if they use them at all. If you want to involve your church in cyber missions, here’s a good way to get started with a church social media campaign, courtesy of Cataclysm Missions, Intl:
1. Appoint a pastor to be in charge gathering volunteers and leaders.
2. Have one of those leaders put in charge of digital outreach for each Sunday worship service.
3. Have one or more groups of volunteers per service. They should be recruited by the pastor and leader.
4. Each group of volunteers is responsible for the spiritual health and well-being of the congregation during that service. They perform a number of tasks, serving as prayer warriors, doing a newsfeed prayer walk, befriend members on social media, text them, email them, etc.
5. After the groups are formed, leaders and their group work together to gather social network lists, emails, and cell phone and text numbers from members of the congregation. Each volunteer in that group is assigned a handful of people to be in charge of.
6. Apprise the pastoral staff of prayer requests and other situations so that the pastors know how to pray for their church.
How the volunteers serve the congregation:
- Send a friend request to your assigned people on your social networks. Add them to your phonebook and email list.
- Introduce yourself. Find out what their concerns are, what’s going on in their lives, and how you can pray for them.
- Create a Facebook list so you don’t miss updates from those you have been assigned to serve.
- Do a newsfeed prayer walk through your list (more on that here).
- Engage them on their social networks, email, and text. Encourage them, listen to them. Be creative!
- Report any prayer requests to the leader, who will then notify the pastoral staff.
