Facing the Future

Ken Nichols/Sardis Baptist Church

Left to right, Sherri Sholar, Kaylyn Moss (standing), and Martha Nichols play Mexican Train dominos during Sardis Baptist Church’s Game Night Jan. 30. Pastor Kenneth Nichols promoted the event partly through the church’s Facebook page.

DULUTH — The lone stoplight in Sardis swings over the intersection of highways 23 and 24. The only culinary choice is the Our Family Café. A single grocery story – Jenkins IGA – serves its just-over 1,000 residents.

Sardis Baptist Church fits the part, mostly. A small porch in front leads into the sanctuary. Burgundy carpet coats the floor, creeping past the rows of pews before surrounding the choir loft and pulpit up front.

The scope of ministry at Sardis Baptist defies the rural setting, though, largely through its embracing of online communication, namely Facebook.

The social networking site has grown like an ever-hungry five-year-old (celebrating that birthday Feb. 4) in its young existence. Now, more than 150 million people use it to connect with friends, family, co-workers – name a label and someone falls into it. Messaging on Facebook has all but replaced email for many. Writing on a person’s Wall is the modern-day techno sticky note.

Yes, it can appear to be a little self-promotional (25 things about me, anyone?), but in it ministers are finding an unmatched tool for building relationships with church members while getting to know others who view the phone call like a floppy disk.

Sardis pastor Ken Nichols was introduced to Facebook upon graduating from Southwestern Seminary. The alumni office set up accounts for graduates as a way to maintain contact as well as easily tie the information into their contact system.

“I thought [Facebook] was just kind of neat at first,” says Nichols, who is also active on the micro-blogging site Twitter, setting up accounts for himself (twitter.com/KenNichols) and his church (twitter.com/SardisBC) on each. “I wasn’t active on it the first year, but in early 2008 I noticed more people getting involved so I started to get in touch with former classmates.

“Sardis is a small town where most pastors are bi-vocational. I’ve wanted to have an open conduit with those guys for a long time and Facebook provides that.”

Nichols can thank one man as the initial force behind everyone from teenagers to me-maws posting their profiles online and typing out their favorite movie one-liners. Some view the flurry of web activity as a sort of animal house, while others embrace the tremors as a freeing, even footloose, way for a few good men (and women) to embrace communication possibilities.

My stuff online?!?

In the mid-90s a game emerged called Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, challenging participants to connect the actor with any other through their co-appearance in his numerous movies. The idea led to the 1997 development of Six Degrees, a website that allowed users to list family members and friends while reconnecting with old acquaintances.

Six Degrees existed only a few years, closing down largely to users’ becoming uncomfortable with placing so much personal information online. The seed was planted though, and the begetting of copycat sites was soon to come.

One of those, Facebook, is becoming the social networking device of choice for churches – more streamlined and not as kitschy or risqué as MySpace, the other social media giant with nearly 257 million users.

“I saw other pastors use [Facebook] for ministry, which made me look closer at it for that purpose,” said Nichols. “A pastor friend of mine in a college town talked about how many of his people use it. In Sardis, senior citizens are on it as well as young people. We also have our church page where people can sign up and get announcements.”

Chris Forbes’ free e-book “Facebook for Pastors” has been downloaded more than 25,000 times. It’s available at
ministrymarketingcoach.com/free-e-books.

One of those is 72-year-old Shelby Bell. “My first impression was that maybe it was just another MySpace, but have since found it to be much better,” she says. “Several of my older friends have joined and I think it will be good for some of our homebound members. I love being able to ‘talk’ with others and share pictures and thoughts on Facebook.”

A consultant who formerly worked in media for the Baptist Convention of Oklahoma and as a media strategist for the International Mission Board, Chris Forbes first saw the potential of Facebook as “a really great time-waster.” He’s since changed views, so much that he wrote “Facebook for Pastors,” a free e-book available for download as an introduction and veritable “How-to” for ministers testing the Facebook waters.

“I soon saw the ministry networking capabilities of it,” says Forbes. “Nearly three-fourths of college students are on Facebook. Any minister that wants to reach young adults but isn’t aware of texting or Facebook is impairing his ministry.”

Facebook and other social media give churchgoers as well as those outside the church a way to see their pastor as more than a suit behind the pulpit, added Forbes. Those aforementioned “25 things …” lists help break down the wall.

Jamie Auton, pastor of King Spring Baptist in Smyrna, has been pleasantly surprised at social media’s impact on his church. “Facebook has actually strengthened us relationally,” he says. “More conversation is taking place between the church body than just what occurs on Sunday morning. It allows those relationships to be built consistently.”

“A pastor’s Facebook profile gives people a chance to see him differently,” adds Forbes. “One pastor told me of his college ministry leader announcing an event on Facebook. When he arrived he had never seen more than half the people there.”

The point is raised, though: Aren’t these pseudo-relationships? Are the people on that list really your friends?

“I walked into the bank yesterday and before I arrived at the counter someone I didn’t know said they had seen a picture of me on Facebook,” recollects Auton. “She was friends with someone that I was ‘tagged’ with on a photo. It allowed me to enter into a conversation with her about the church because we had a common connection with that individual … and she had initiated the conversation!”

“Relationships online are real,” Forbes contests. “Some pastors say they don’t have time for that, but I imagine sometime back in the 1900s someone puts a phone on a pastor’s desk and he complains about having to answer it every time it rings.

“Social media isn’t going away. It’s poised to reshape the Internet.”