After examining the Facebook pages of Christians as a whole, Riverpointe Church, and Breakaway Ministries, I have noticed some common trends among the three as well as some distinct differences in the way that they express their religion.
One common trend that I saw was they each provide information on how current and potential members can participate in worship as well as other things. The "Christian" Facebook page provides different Facebook groups that people who have "Liked" the page can look into in order to find out how they can further worship. They also provide related pages that people can like and look into to see how else they can get involved. The Riverpointe Church Facebook page is constantly posting opportunities for members to get involved with their church. Riverpointe has several extracurricular events going on outside of Sunday worship service, and they always make sure to let their members know what they have going on and how members can get involved. Breakaway ministries posts every week where their service is, how members can avoid traffic and get their conveniently, as well as a quick sentence on what will be talked about that week. Each of the Facebook pages use Facebook as a means of communicating what they are doing at the moment and how members can get involved and share in worship. A similarity that I saw between the Riverpointe and Breakaway Facebook pages is that they both provide podcasts on their Facebook pages for their members to listen to in case they missed their sermon. They understand that we are a busy group of people, and sometimes making Sunday and Tuesday worship is difficult with our busy schedules. By providing podcasts and posting them on their Facebook page, members are able to easily access the sermons that they may have missed out on. When you "Like" either of the pages, everything that each church post on their page immediately goes into the news feed of each of their members, which allows members to see them immediately and to listen in.
While there are many similarities between each Facebook page, there is also a number of differences between the three. For starters, the Christian Facebook page is more for the religion as a whole rather than and individual church. While it serves as a resource for members to find a church or group that they can join and further their worship, it is not an actual organization that members can be a part of like Riverpointe Church and Breakaway ministries are. One of the main differences between Riverpointe and Breakaway is that Riverpointe posts more content that includes scripture, videos reflecting the message of the week, statements for members to reflect on before the church service on Monday, etc. Breakaway Ministries Facebook serves as more of a resource for members to see where the service will be that week and how they can get their easily. Riverpointe uses Facebook as a way of updating their members, as well as communicating Christianity to it's members throughout the week.
While each Facebook page has their similarities and differences, they all for sure have one thing in common and that is that they provide a place for Christians to come together online and communicate their love for Jesus Christ in whichever way they choose. They each take denomination out of the equation and allow members to worship Jesus in the way that best fits them. Where as more organized Christian churches come with rules and restrictions, the two churches I've chosen to study give members the ability to worship Jesus freely and the way that best serves them. While critics may not be the best fans of this idea, I think that these non-denominational churches best reflect the purpose of the Emerging Church Movement and everything that that includes, and a lot of that is demonstrated in how they use their Facebook pages to reach their members.
After looking at all of this information, My research question for this case study will be: "How do non-denominational Christian churches use Facebook to either communicate or not communicate religion to their members, and why?"
No comments:
Post a Comment