Surfing through Facebook, I came across this post on St. Andrew, Harrington Park's page. The story was all of three sentences:
Here's a picture of over 4,000 sets of utensils – plastic forks, knives and spoons wrapped in napkins, by parishioners and friends of St. Andrew's.
The utensils will be used by Family Promise as it feeds dinner to over 100 people every night in Hackensack and in other places. Thanks to all!
Three sentences, one photo. That's all. But in that short post-with a picture-St. Andrew's shared a living, breathing example of how their faith community was making a difference in the world.
We talk in Stewardship about the natural progression of Ask, Thank, Tell. You Ask, then you Thank, and they you Tell. Each component is important, and yet "Tell," is often ignored. But with Facebook, it's easy. If you're not using your church's Facebook page to Tell," you're missing a big opportunity. People are hungry for news about their faith community: Facebook is a way to feed them that news. (Click here for Ten tips for churches on using Facebook).
Back to my tour around church Facebook pages. Many churches are posting links to worship services, which is great. But is it your whole story? Facebook can be a great way to share a "slice of life" look into ministry that we might not otherwise know about.
A social media "story" is not so much a story (beginning, middle, end) as it is just a glimpse into the life of your community. Like the 4,000 sets of plastic utensils that St. Andrew's Harrington Park collected that meant the hungry could be fed. Stewardship at work!
The story doesn't have to be about work of your church as a whole. Perhaps one of your parishioners is stitching masks for healthcare workers? Ask them to send you a photo to post. That's a great story of ministry! It's the Tell in Ask, Thank, Tell.
Use all the communications tools at your disposal to tell your ministry stories. You'll be doing important Stewardship work.
Stay well,
Cynthia
P.S. Speaking of Facebook, click here to join our private Stewardship Matters Facebook Group and our more general page here. Check them out!
