The New Church Social
By Katie Mercer
November 16, 2021
A church on Instagram? Spending time and resources to optimize an online presence may seem preposterous to a lot of ministry organizations. Why spend time online when that energy could be going to the people who are physically present?
Two years ago, I would have been hard-pressed to find a well-curated social media presence for a local church. But when COVID-19 disrupted the traditional routine, an online presence became a dire necessity to stream services and maximize connectivity within social media. Part of my role as the social media coordinator at First Baptist Rogers [Rogers, Arkansas] is to figure out how we, as a church, can use social media for marketing and take our online presence to the next level.
My workweek starts on Sunday. Armed with a Sony camera and a large zoom lens, I spend the day capturing ordinary moments in an extraordinary way. Sunday is chaotic. Kids scream worship songs at the top of their lungs. Family and friends sit in the front rows, happy tears shimmering as they watch a loved one declare their dedication to the Lord through baptism. Groups of ladies gather to catch up after a week apart. My desire is to capture these moments. In this way, I get to directly utilize my photography degree from JBU.
If I am not taking pictures or printing Sunday bulletins, I am strategizing when, where and what to post online. I work with a team to plan out a month of content and put the necessary pieces together to accomplish those ideas. This can be a simple, one-off post on current events — for example, a post promoting Nov. 17 as Take a Hike Day. Posts can also cover an entire series based on our Sunday sermons.
Right now, I am learning Instagram Reels, which have an unparalleled reach because reels are most widely viewed by people who are not actively following our church account. This gives us a foot in the door to the surrounding community. Each week, I get to dive deeper into the data analytics collected from our social media, and I search for trends within those analytics in hopes of maximizing our online reach.
The questions remain: why is it important to utilize social media? Why is it important to present compelling photographs and content of Sunday happenings? Because times have changed and are still changing, and we live in an online world.
When someone searches for First Baptist Rogers on Instagram, I hope they see an accurate representation of who we are. I want them to see a fun, thoughtful collection of pictures, graphics and media that tells the viewer the story of our church. I hope they see the love of Christ shining through and feel like they could belong here with us.
