If a couple has a baby, do they pic up the phone or post it to Facebook? If a family gets a new pet, are they going to email you a pic or post it on Facebook? You may not be apart of the crowd that does this, (Yet!) but our society is changing they way they communicate! Most young people consider it more efficient and more respectful to communicate via text message, Facebook and Twitter. They want to BROADCAST their message instead of one on one.
Think about it for a second. How long does it take to read 1 text or post? 10 seconds? How long does a phone conversation? Just the intro “Hey tom this is chad, how are you?” takes longer than 10 seconds! Young people know this and are opting to tell people about their lives on one of these “broadcast platforms”
Chad Gleaves and Penny Nash of www.penelopepiscopal.blogspot.com came to the conclusion that there has to be a mentality change for some of the older Pastors or Ministers in Churches.
In times past, it was customary for members of a congregation to pick up the phone and call their Pastors or Ministers to share news or information about themselves. Now, although the elder members still may call, the younger generations have more or less recognized that it is more respectful of another person’s time to send text messages or use Facebook rather than calling them over the phone.
People are taking a more casual approach to communicate with their Pastors, Ministers or church co-members. Lets just admit it! Sending a text messages or postings on Facebook or sending e-mail are simply more efficient! So as pastors and ministers we need to meet our congregation where they are and communicate with them in ways they feel comfortable.
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Luckily our pastor gets it. He does text people that are willing to use the technology. The kids are teaching us! It is easier to put information out there once for whoever wants to see it. The ministries that use this technology will have an advantage in reaching more people within their community and the world. Nice post!
Great post. We recently wrote something that expands on this in a different direction… see “Could you Live Without Ever Talking on the Phone?” http://churchwebsites.org/could-you-live-without-talking-on-the-phone/
Chad, thanks for writing today's post. I definitely think the way we communicate personal information is changing. I don't know how much other people think about this, but I regularly think about whether certain news ought to be communicated personally to certain people before it's broadcast to everyone. When someone dies, gets engaged, learns about a health problem, the people closest to them shouldn't hear about it through Facebook.
But to your point, most people probably don't consider their pastor to be in that close circle of friends who would get a personal phone call unless the news really devastating and they want to pray with him immediately. So, if a pastor really wants to know what's going on with people, Facebook is one of the best ways to do that now.
This is Chad with http://getyourchurchfanpage.com/fm – what tipped me off to this was hearing my pastor (30+ years at our church) say time and time again. So and so is getting out of the hospital today? I didn't know they were in the hospital! How are we suppose to visit them if they don't call and let us know.
Ill go home and my stay at home wife (who spends more time socially on Facebook than I do) will already have heard about the person going into the hospital….. all off Facebook.
Here's a great example. My wife Sheila was blessed to receive an organ transplant (2 organs actually) earlier this year. She spent a total of 70 days in the hospital. Dozens of friends and family wanted to keep up with her progress but there was no way I could keep up with calling everyone. We used a website called caring bridge. Anyone interested could subscribe to our updates via email or text message and follow our prayer needs and praise reports either in realtime or as their schedule permitted. One on One calling is slowly going the way of the fax machine and vcr.