How to Use Social Media In a New Church Plant

There is a formula for launching a church in America. Collect lots of money. Spend lots of money getting the word out. Turn the big crowd of strangers into a church. It’s easy… if you have lots of money. But c’mon, church planters are hackers by nature right? It’s possible to get the word out in a better way, especially today.

When we began planting Grace Hills, we didn’t want to drop a ton of money on massive but impersonal means of announcing our arrival – and we didn’t have a ton of money anyway. So we used Facebook.

We’re still using Facebook. And it’s working.

• We started with two couples (including the Cox’s). We spent $0 on traditional advertising but had 35 at our first gathering in July of 2011.
• We grew to approximately 80 within six months by word-of-mouth and while spending $0 on traditional advertising.
• We launched with 176 on our first Sunday, mostly gathered through Facebook, word-of-mouth, and search engines.
• Today, we’re the most “liked” church in northwest Arkansas and an estimated 75-80% of our first time guests found us on the web. Keep reading

Also see
Jesus and the Digital Pharisees