Geraint Harries, a technology specialist, for St John the Evangelist in Lancashire, admits that when his parish first started using social media, it didn’t get it quite right.
“At first we didn’t really know what social media meant for the church and fell into the trap of simply chasing the number of likes and followers on our Facebook page,” he says.
But when a parishioner credited the Facebook page for her decision to return to the church, then he felt the strategy had started to work.
Weekly posts on the social media page of the church which simply asked “How can we pray for you today?” resonated with the woman going through a divorce last Christmas.
“Sometimes it can be daunting to turn up in person to a service so connecting online, more anonymously, can make it easier to take that first step into the building which happened here,” he adds.
📲CHURCH OF ENGLAND GOES DIGITAL📲
👨🏼💻 The @churchofengland has a major focus on digital engagement
👩💻Well done to @adrianharris & the CofE digital team who have already trained 2000 churches with digital best practise
👇What do you think about this?👇https://t.co/Jef4acHkkk
— Matt Hogg (@Mathogg) October 11, 2019