30 churches on Facebook (and four observations)

I’ve been doing some thinking on how to maximise my church’s presence on Facebook. I’ve been researching how other churches are using Facebook, and put together a list of some examples of churches using Facebook well (or at least frequently!):

1. Hillsong Church
2. Mars Hill Church (Seattle)
3. Willow Creek Community Church
4. Petersham Evening Church
5. Village Church (Texas)
6. Village Church (Sydney)
7. Dubbo Presbyterian Church
8. NewSpring Church
9. Northside Baptist Church
10. Granger Community Church
11. The Adundant Life Church
12. Hunter Bible Church
13. Park Community Church (by far the most innovative landing page)
14. 24 Church
15. Woodlands Church
16. Saddleback Church
17. College Park Church
18. Pinelake Church
19. Seacoast Church
20. Hope Church
21. Liquid Church (the best landing page for a church I’ve seen)
22. Fellowship Church
23. 12Stone Church
24. Northway Church
25. Substance Church
26. Cottonwood Church
27. Bayside Church
28. C3 Church
29. Sovereign Grace Baptist Church (Brisbane)
30. Brooklake Church

Three observations

1. Before you start a Facebook page for your church, check for duplicates. In my search for churches on Facebook, I saw several churches with more than one page. Obviously this is confusing for people searching for a church/your church. Equally obviously, this is quite easily fixed!
2. Some churches didn’t display any information about what they believe, or the mission of their church. For example, what on earth is Skull Church, and what does it believe?! You can always check out their website (listed in the ‘Info’ tab), but it doesn’t hurt to provide this information up front.
3. Some mission statements are very short and simple (e.g. ‘Connect and Grow’) others more interesting (e.g. ‘We’re here so that you can waste time on Facebook. Oh, and also stay in the loop of all that’s going on. . I liked this introduction for its potential to engage with newcomers who are unfamiliar with church – ‘We don’t care how you dress or who you voted for. Join us for one of 3 services. No church experience required!’
4. Facebook’s search mechanism is confusing. I know there are churches on Facebook with ‘church’ in their title, but when I searched for pages using the term ‘church’, they didn’t appear. There also doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason for the order churches appear in the search results. Each time I attempted a search different results would appear in a different order!

If your church is on Facebook, let us know about it, and share the link below!