Updated by Bruce Reyes-Chow on Jun 19, 2014

Questions That Churches Ask (Or need to ask) About Social Media

Help me put together my Questions that Churches Ask About Social Media" as part of my book (2nd edition due Summer 2013). Please rank, comment and add your questions to the list.

Source: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008FCXKXE/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B008FCXKXE&linkCode=as2&tag=brureychoblo-20

How should pastor's handle social media when severing a relationship with a church?

How do you use social media for pastoral care?

How much time should a pastor put into social media?

What is the relationship between social media and spiritual formation?

How can you use Social Media in worship?

Should a church have a social media coordinator? Should it be paid or volunteer?

Is it OK for the clergy to post political opinions on their public FB page or Twitter account?

How do you judge the effectiveness of Social Media?

What are the unintended consequences of utilizing social media in a church?

Should youth leaders friend youth?

Should pastors have TWO facebook profiles: one private and one public?

How do you judge the congregation's readiness for SM?

How is social media changing the level of transparency of pastors' lives to their congregations?

I think this will lead to greater authenticity in the pulpit. IMO, the pastors who are best-equipped to function in a social media world are those who are prepared to be more of an "open book" to their people. It puts more pressure on us to "walk the talk" - and it puts more pressure on congregants to accept their pastors as flawed human beings.

How do church and pastor reconcile social media with Hebrews 10:25

Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Will Social Media help us grow in membership? If not, why do we bother?

This is the question I get asked all the time. I have an answer, but I'd love to hear others on this.

Should there be policies around social media when a pastor leaves, when the pastoral relationship with the congregation

This may apply to how regional bodies handle this as well, but it is at the local church where social media could result in awkwardness online for both parishioners and the "next" pastor.

You seem to be overlooking some of the most basic questions -

What type of content should we share? How often do we post? What kind of settings should our page have - IE, do we allow anyone to post, or only the Page Admin, and if we allow anyone to post, do we set the default to show ALL posts or only posts by the Page Admin? Do we use a PAGE in Facebook, or a GROUP? Do we try to have a presence on multiple platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, etc) or do we focus our efforts on one?

How do we respond to those who question the security of personal information on social media?

When I asked this elsewhere the question was declared "silly" because SM is no less secure than phone, email or other methods of communication. Not a helpful response.