Facebook For Church: How To Start Or Grow A Church Using Facebook!

It became clear that God had called my wife and me to a new adventure last year. We were asked to open a new Mesquite Nv church. Although this was not my first church planting, I had done two others. However, it was the first one I planned, and I didn’t know anyone in the area. So I had to learn a new way to do it. Facebook was a great tool for growing and planting churches.

Facebook is today’s watering hole. As Paul was seen at Phillipi by the riverside, where the women went for prayer (Acts 16;11-15), Facebook is the modern-day watering hole. People communicate via Facebook instead of speaking about the local community at the local diner.

I decided to use Facebook to create a church. Here are the steps I have taken so far. They allowed me to begin with a vision and then build a core group of believers ready to move into our first building. I hope that it will be helpful to you as you try to grow or start your church via Facebook.

Use Facebook for Church Planting or Growth

To get started with Facebook as a church, there are two things you must do. First, you must create a Facebook page for your church. Second, you will need a website. I won’t go into the details of building your church website.

You will need a website if you plan to use Facebook to grow your church.

Create a Facebook Page for Church Planting and Growth

First, create a Facebook page for your church. Click the Create button at the top right of your Facebook profile.

After clicking “create”, you’ll see a list with options. Click on “create a page.” The process will begin to give Facebook the information it needs for your page. Follow these instructions to begin the process.

Church Cover Photos

After creating your page, the first thing to do is to add a cover photo to your page. This is the banner image at the top. This image could be your logo or a photo of your church. It might also include a photo of worshippers in your sanctuary. Any image that reflects the mission and values of your church.

The cover photo must be 828×315 Here’s an example of mine. Click here to see a complete list.

It is important to remember that your profile picture will be visible in the lower left-hand corner. Do not place anything there.

Next, upload your profile picture. You can upload a picture of yourself, a photograph of someone, a graphic that your church uses often, or your logo. It is important to choose something so that people recognize your church from the small thumbnail image in the post.

Example of a Church Facebook Post

First, you must understand that your Facebook page is part of your ministry to the community. Facebook is not a glorified bulletin or events calendar. People will notice if you are too self-promotional and may leave your church. For every post inviting people to your events or services, you should post five posts that minister to your community.

You have many options.

Memes:

A meme is an image with writing attached to it, conveying a message. They are everywhere on Facebook. Memes can communicate simple principles or encouragements that align with your church’s values.

You can use a template, but make sure to include branding. For example, your logo should be used, so people know it is from you. Here’s one of our memes.

https://www.facebook.com/mesquiteworshipcenter/photos/a.105938144122179/177744186941574/

You can use scriptures, Christian quotes, or your 140-character or less tweet-sized devotional for the day. We share five memes per week. Monday through Friday

Share a URL to a website:

You probably know that Facebook allows you to share pages from other websites. You can share inspiring articles from your favorite publications and events in your local community and occasionally share something from your website.

Our website has a section that allows you to share testimonies about God’s work in the lives and ministries of the church. Here’s an example.

https://www.facebook.com/mesquiteworshipcenter/posts/148254556557204

Here’s an example of how to share someone’s Facebook post. This is my personal Facebook post, but it can be shared with anyone who has set their settings to make that post public. This could be anything from the church or from other believers. There are no limits to what you can do.

https://www.facebook.com/mesquiteworshipcenter/posts/179233536792639

Although the embed from that post may look strange, it appears differently on your page than on others’ feeds.

Events:

Another type of Facebook post that you can use is events. You can share anything on Facebook that invites people to visit, such as Sunday services, vacation Bible school or a potluck.

This is the latest example showing how events are being used to promote Sunday morning services.

https://www.facebook.com/events/114258326592569/

Events cannot embed in websites, so you’ll have to click the link to view what it looks like.

Example of a Church Facebook Ad

You can choose from three types of Facebook ads. These ads are designed to encourage people to like your Facebook Page, send people to your church’s website, or make them aware of your church.

We have only used two of these ads in our church plant so far. To gain likes on Facebook, we have used ads. This is crucial because your posts will not be seen unless people like your page.

We are part of a small community with 22,000 residents. We had an ad running for a month that was liked 100 times. This was a good base to spread the news about our new church. You could have 500 to 1000 people following your page in a larger city or community. This is an example of how we used the ad.

Remember to include a call to action in all of your advertising. Look at the request to like our Facebook page at the top.

Later, we used Facebook ads for information about our services. Here’s an example of such an ad.

You can also use “boost,” which allows you to turn your Facebook posts into ads. From time to time, we boost our event posts.

Use Facebook Live For Church

Facebook Live is another powerful way to reach your Facebook community for Christ. You can read my entire article about Facebook Live here. It’s enough to say that we began live-streaming Sunday morning services once we had started hosting them.

We had initial interest from people wanting to visit the church. However, once they were satisfied with their curiosity, numbers declined. But, over time, we have built an audience. You can see the number of views we get.

You can see that we have almost 100 views in a building 1/3 the size.

You can also live stream your Sunday services by creating short videos that explain your beliefs, share testimonies or go over the mission and uniqueness of your church.

Best Camera For Church Facebook Live Streams

If you’re new to using Facebook for church, I have extensive writing on the intricacies of live streaming. My learning curve was steeped in trial and error. I hope my experiences can help you avoid making the same mistakes.

Tip for Church Facebook Page

My biggest tip is to try new things. Pay attention to the people you are connecting with. Find out why your audience loves something. Try something different if they don’t like what you’re doing. Don’t let this be about you. It’s all about serving them. They will eventually be part of your family if you touch their heart.

Remember to be patient. Relationships on social media don’t happen overnight. They take time. We are starting to see the fruits of the October seeds.

What has been our success rate in the end? Facebook has accounted for 30% of our core group. Although it isn’t huge, we started only a few months ago. It has been proven that Facebook can be used to grow and plant churches.