Jody Ray's Blog

Mt Bethel and Facebook

Posted: May 31, 2009

Last year, a group from Mt. Bethel attended Saddleback Church’s small group conference. It was an amazing event for all, and we gained a greater understanding of the limitless potential small groups can have within our congregation. One of the more interesting concepts was small group networking and management software available for churches. These different networking softwares have great features for managing and connecting people into small groups, but they also have the ability for small group leaders to connect with their groups and to create group discussions among the members of the group. This one feature was my favorite because it allows small groups the ability to stay connected in a really unique way outside of the small group meeting times and to have ongoing discussions about relevant topics.

We currently don’t have the ability to purchase small group networking software, but we do have the ability for our small groups to stay connected, and it’s totally free. The many different social media sites have made it possible for people to connect and stay connected to friends and family all around the world. Using these sites you can send messages, chat (audio and video), and share pictures and video of special occasions. These sites also give you the opportunity to create special interests groups. Using Facebook, for instance, you can create any kind of special interest group you would like and invite people to join those groups. There are several hundred of these special interest groups alone on Facebook related to Mt Bethel. For example, there is our main Mt. Bethel group, a Mt. Bethel Missions group, an Encounter worship service group, multiple youth groups, and many small groups. There are presently around 2,000 members of Mt. Bethel who use Facebook (WOW). I use Facebook as a way to stay connected to our congregation and the different Life Groups I facilitate.

I would like you to consider using Facebook as a means for staying connected with your Life Group, Sunday School class, or Bible study group. I’ve asked Mickey Mellen, our webmaster at the church, to show you in this short video how to create a group using Facebook and some of the creative ways you can use this technology to stay connected. Oh, by the way, it’s FREE!!

Free online screencasting tool

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