Good news from the perspective of a church volunteer
Who knew God could use our social media accounts to reach so many people? For the last several years, I have served as Social Media Communications Manager of the South Bay Church in Manhattan Beach, California.
Every day I eagerly awake to check our accounts, engage with people, and answer questions. I’m probably the most excited person to moderate and read insights or analytics on our accounts. Seriously, sometimes I even squeak when I see how God uses a specific post or it reaches many people in our community.
There are members of our community that come out to church because of our online presence: from our website to our social media accounts, they are able to learn about us and our love for God. Our church has this great ability to welcome new people, study the Bible with them, and help transition them into a Christian lifestyle. There’s a lot of resources for people in all stages of life physically and spiritually. I’ve noticed that over time, the resources only get better: deeper studies, more vulnerable talks, amazing workshops and retreats. We have all of these amazing things happening and we want to help share them with others too! One of the tools we use to share about what’s going on is our social media accounts.
The biggest thing I’ve learned in the past six years is that God can reach a lot more people than I can on my own; and he’ll use whatever tools he can to do it. I think it’s pretty cool that when God wants something to happen, he makes it happen; and there is no limit.
Recent examples from the South Bay Church
In August, our talented Director of Worship and Media J. Brian Craig, was inspired to post a video invitation on our Facebook page to inform people about an upcoming series we have entitled, “Elephant in the Room.” This is a series to learn and discuss serious topics like politics, sex, pornography, anger, and racism. It’s not really the warm and fuzzy type of church series, so I’m glad he did a video explaining it and introducing it. It inspires me to attend every service to learn more! In the first 24 hours, this simple video recorded in his car reached over 2,600 people and was shared/reacted to/commented on 79 times. That sure is a lot of activity considering it’s a simple video recorded with his cell phone. I’m grateful that God put it on Brian’s heart to communicate with us, and our community, about this series in a video format because the written announcements just don’t do it any justice.
One Sunday, we had an amazing regional worship service at a giant park in Long Beach. I’m not even sure how many people were there because it was our four sister churches plus our family and friends. It was a beautiful, sunny day with a very diverse group of people learning about God and worshiping him together. I was very excited to take photos of the service. My personal goal has always been to capture what God is doing in our church and community, to share it with others to create unity, encourage each other, and show who we are as disciples. I take John 13:35 very seriously, as it states, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
I already know we have an incredible ministry of loving people who go after God’s heart, and I want others to know it too! A few hours after church was over, I posted photos from the service to one of our Facebook pages. I’m happy when it encourages our church family and helps build unity; but God had greater plans for this post. In the first three days, the post reached 3,300 people with an engagement of 6,400; meaning that the images were clicked on 6.4K times, and was shared/reacted to/commented on 410 times.
People can even view this post years later and learn about us through these images. I believe posts like this give our community a look into our lives and our love for each other. It also shows how we worship and spend time together. This is a great way we can show others who we are; and it also encourages those who were unable to attend. That post inspired a man from Tijuana to want to come join us at our next regional service. It is simply amazing how God reaches those we cannot reach on our own.
Here's one more example of how God has been outperforming us on social media.
God allowed our church to put on a Christmas production called, “Night at the Nativity.” There was a lot of work put into this by many people and I have to commend Gina Stickley for her incredible production skills with it. I was blessed with the honor of photographing the play and ended up having so many images that I posted them in three albums: Act I, Act II, and Behind the Scenes. Even though it seemed like way too many images to share, it seemed like the most logical thing to do, so I went with it. In the first week, God allowed that post to reach over 4,600 people with over 26,900 clicks. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw that the images were clicked on that many times! Before that our clicks were in the hundreds range, at best.
In the last week of August, our reach on Facebook was just over 3,700 and 4,600, respectively, since we have two pages. We also reached over 2,300 people on Instagram. We are active in posting and engaging with our followers every day, and strive to bring relevant content to their feeds. We have made several mistakes along the way; so we learn, develop our skills, and strive to grow.
No matter what we do (or don’t do), God is working!
God is using our social media accounts for more than just us announcing when our next event is. He is helping bring people out to church, so they can see the love of Christ for themselves. He helps unify us as disciples, connecting not only our local churches but even those throughout the world. We were recently encouraged by a sister from Hong Kong who contacted us through Facebook because she wants to spend time with disciples while she’s in town for a work trip. Helping her connect to our churches here in Los Angeles put a huge smile on my face. The love for God and desire for unity is evident as we live out Acts 2:42, which states, “ They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”
Sometimes I imagine God typing up the captions himself. I wonder what he would say. Every time I post on our accounts I pray that God uses it to reach the people he wants it to because I firmly believe in Isaiah 55:11, which states, “...so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” I get so excited to see how God is working, and I could share so many more examples of how God uses our efforts for him. They are his accounts, his plans, and his vision. I just hope I can keep up with him because our God is pretty much a rockstar. I’m eager to hear about how God has been working in other churches as well!
Story behind the photo: Today I photographed two beach baptisms in Redondo. The sun was shining bright, the birds cheerfully gliding, the waves crashing down on the shore. Then, there was a group singing and praying. A group in the middle of families with their umbrellas and coolers, sunscreen and castle-building children. Amidst the runners, cyclers, and kids body surfing with screams and giggles... There was this group. The harmony of voices caught everyone's attention. The beach-goers couldn't ignore the fact that there was basically a choir standing next to them. A sweet teenage girl named Abby got baptized today, followed by another loving young woman named Monse. Even with all of the chaos and turmoil in our world, people still want to connect, change, and thrive. To love deeply and bring hope to their hearts. Two people on bikes so caught up in the moment that they are looking at the group, and not anything else. I love being grounded in the "here and now," and appreciating the little in-between moments like these. It truly is such an honor to capture these special moments!
When I first saw this photo I cried because of the incredible impact that God was having on the people at the beach. God can reach far more people than I can on my own!
All photos by Vanessa Adams.