Advantages and Disadvantages of Facebook Pastor Pages

More often than not, pastors have a personal digital presence to connect with their community. And sometimes, they even create a ministry pages for themselves. But does it contribute to the church’s mission? Or is it just one of the unnecessary things, but we keep doing anyway? Will it help pastors to have ministry pages to make the most out of their time online?

Let’s weigh the advantages and disadvantages by checking out our members’ experiences shared in our Church Communications Facebook group.

Advantages:

We see that through having another medium of connection, churches are able to limit the overwhelming line of communication that a pastor could experience through social media. This has shown to be very useful in larger churches.

“He is very approachable in person, so we found that people were quick to message him personally on Facebook. That quickly became something he simply could not manage — and we didn’t want to manage personal messages from individuals thinking only he was reading them. Having a page enabled us to manage that better.” Steven W. Murray

Here, there are 3 different avenues in which a pastor’s ministerial page can be useful:

“Audience: Potential connections that the church page may not be able to have as an influence on.

Reach: Things like live videos can get broadcast from both pages.

For the Pastor: Identity beyond the particular church that can grow with them.” Jared Rendell

Disadvantages:

We know that with any kind of focus or highlighting in the Christian community, ministry can become self centered and take away from the true heart of our calling.  We as leaders in the Church need to be mindful of our influence and the message that certain actions can give. It is always great to be cautious and construct detailed parameters in which we make changes in this digital age.

“There’s also a suggestion of making the message about the person if the page is under a person’s name, and I’ve seen individuals become “celebrities” instead of disciples. Again, it doesn’t mean one couldn’t do a page, but it’s a caution I would have.” Katie Livingood

“Split audience; ministry focused on the person and their skills or magnetism or whatever it may be rather than Jesus and Christian community – aka who’s the famous one here?

Reach goes down and part of the following leaves when the pastor does.

Potential Confusion: People pick apart everything that’s said, shared, tagged, etc.” Jared Rendell

Conclusion:

There will always be two sides to everything. In your journey of creating a media presence on Facebook, keep in mind some of these things mentioned above. Each church has their own specific needs, so be mindful of where your church is and what direction the Lord is leading you in.

 

Who Wrote this?

Subscribe To Our Newsletter

Get updates and learn from the best

More To Explore

Leadership

‘Tis the Season of Gifting

‘Tis the season of gifting and gathering, where visitors, volunteers, and ministry efforts surge, often dividing our attention between our families at home and our

Pssstttttt—Want to know our secrets?

Here’s how to learn more from church leaders across the world: 

  1. Stay up-to-date on the people, technologies, trends, and best practices shaping the future of communication strategies for your church, delivered directly to your inbox. >> Join the List
  2. Join 20,000+ peer communicators worldwide who are part of the Church Communications® community, supporting each other each and every day >> Join the Facebook Group
  3. Explore related topics in more depth on the Church Communications® Podcast >> Subscribe to the Podcast
  4. Connect with us on social >> Instagram, Facebook Page, Twitter
 

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, we will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, we only recommend products or services we use personally and believe will add value to my readers. We are disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”