social media

4 Ways Your Church Can Use ‘Pokemon Go’…

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By now, if you’ve spent any time on the internet, you are certainly aware of the game ‘Pokemon Go’. It’s a game that uses your smart phone and nostalgia to encourage kids (and young adults) go for walks all over town. There is an interesting component to the whole game that churches should be aware of. The game includes different stations around town where people can go and regain supplies for the game. Fun fact – Churches are almost always one of these stations.

Just yesterday morning, I saw two young boys sitting on my churches lawn for a half an hour, because my church (Twin Oaks UMC) happens to be one of those stations. There are several ways churches could use this game to build relationships with their communities. Here are a few ideas and suggestions:  Continue reading →

3 Ways to Get to Know Your Congregation…

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For many United Methodist pastors, you’ve just survived your first Sunday at your new church, and are still swimming in boxes as you unpack. Now, you have months and months of getting to know the new congregation you have been appointed to care for. Even if you’re not United Methodist, the process of getting to know a new congregation is daunting.

I want to offer a few insights I’ve learned through getting to know two different congregations. Here are three things for getting to know your congregation better: Continue reading →

6 Apps to Help You with Spiritual Growth…

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Guest Writer – Abigail Yeazel

In this day and age, technology keeps growing in popularity, practicality and usage. This means that apps are being used more and more. Christian culture has utilized the popularity of apps to create apps for spiritual growth. I’m thankful for the reasoning many have done it. Just like Jesus, they seek to meet people where they are.

Personally, I use several of these different apps during my morning devotional times. I thought it might be helpful to share those with you. I stand with the leadership in the goal for personal growth in each of you, so if this can help you in your morning quiet times or with motivation to have a quiet time/ morning devotional time, praise be to God.

With each app I have listed the description given by Google Play as well as listed why and how I use it. Continue reading →

5 Ways to Help Your Church Using Social Media…

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Social media is one of those things that churches either seem to get, or they don’t. The only real middle category in between ‘get it’ and ‘what’s social media?’ is ‘trying really hard’. And I think my church, Twin Oaks UMC, is in that category. There are a decent number of us in the church who want to help the church out with social media.

So today I wanted to list some things that people in my church (and really any church) can do to use social media to the benefit of the church:

Continue reading →

Dear Church, We’ve Moved. Love, Your Kids…

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A lot of churches are struggling to connect with Millennials, for a large number of reasons. The biggest reason I’ve noticed, while wearing both the “church leader” hat and the “millennial” hat, is that the church isn’t sharing information in to social ‘watering holes’.

A ‘watering hole’ is a hub that the community gathers regularly. In ancient times, it was often a well or a marketplace. More recently, it was the downtown area of a city or village. Now, the ‘watering hole’ has moved online to social media. Before, you’d look for ‘Help Wanted’ signs in windows to find a job, now we go to different websites. If you wanted to get to know even a little bit about someone, you’d have to go to their house. Now, we have virtual living rooms on Facebook.

Many churches continue to make community announcements, celebrate birthdays, and organize events using the techniques they did twenty years ago: passing clipboards and having the pastor tell the congregation what was going on. The problem is that the churches kids (Millennials) can’t hear them, because we’re not there.

Continue reading →