BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- Andy Crouch, author of “Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling,” wants to see American churches get involved in social media and be good at it.
“We’re really behind on this,” Crouch said.
Websites and social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter can influence young people to make profound decisions about a church, he said.
“Churches are very well poised to use social media,” Crouch said. “Social media is ultimately about relationships. What most people use social media for is for augmenting reality, adding a layer on to embodied life, adding on to that the ability to stay connected. Physical presence and actual relationships continue to matter and actually matter more.”
Crouch will be the featured speaker this summer at Samford University’s Church Media Institute, Aug. 1-2. He’ll try to convince people that social media is an important tool for traditional ministry. Reservations for the two-day program are available by calling 726-2216.
“From shouting on the rooftops in the early days of the church to contemporary radio and TV ministries, the church has always searched for a megaphone for God’s message,” said David Chapman, dean of the Howard College of Arts and Sciences at Samford. “The Church Media Institute will assist pastors and lay workers in using the tools of social media to reach a new generation with the gospel.”
Crouch, whose book was named Christianity Today’s book of the year in 2009, is considered one of the top church media experts.
“The way you win in social media is serving the people who have made some personal connection with you,” Crouch said.
Churches even have an advantage, he said. “You’ve actually got the greatest resource — real community and real people who will do things for you,” he said. “Churches are one of the last reservoirs of social capital. Facebook, Twitter and other social media are just ways to stay well connected to people who actually have embodied relationships with the church.”
Focusing too much on social media can have its pitfalls too, he said.
“While I want us to become adept at media, I don’t want us to sell our souls to the media,” Crouch said. “When you start making decisions whose only effect is to increase the number of friends, fans, followers, whatever, I think you are in dangerous territory.”
Being good at social media is no replacement for ministry, he said.
“It’s not about getting 5,000 likes on Facebook,” Crouch said. “The mistake is thinking our virtual followership is what we’re here to increase — when you’re just chasing eyeballs, not actually offering anything. You’ve really failed in the church world if all you get is eyeballs. It matters for a tiny percentage of people called celebrities. That’s not what any church should be aiming for — celebrity. I don’t think anyone should aspire to being a celebrity.
“I’m worried churches will start measuring their success online in a way that is like celebrities. You can do things that tend to get attention. You can buy attention; you can literally pay for it,” Crouch said. “The other way is to serve people well who you actually know, and trust the multiplying power of social media.”
The traditional ministry of the church should remain the focus, while social media can help spread the word, Crouch said.
“Churches should find ways to use social media to do what you most care about doing well,” he said. “They just have to be who they are, and represent themselves well, as opposed to getting distracted from your mission in order to do social media well.
“It can be done beautifully; it can be done well. It’s an opportunity to bear witness to things we care about anyway. Why not do great visual communication, without getting so obsessed with that that we lose track of what we do best?”
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