The Future of Discipleship

My dissertation is currently focusing on discipleship in the body of Christ. Nona pointed out the vast number of people on social media platforms and the need for churches to engage these platforms. The command to build disciples remain while the methodology has changed. This book has been insightful regarding using Facebook as a discipleship platform. 2020 forced many leaders online and displayed a clear picture for the future of ministry. From Social Media to Social Ministry offers a foundation for online churches to thrive. For the Kingdom!

2 people found this helpful

So Relevant for Today!

I loved it! This book is filled with relevant information for today's Church! Please listen and take heed!

1 person found this helpful

Great information.

Obviously one solution does not fit everyone. This is a great launching point! Nona breaks it down for churches and ministries hoping to make a discipleship impact through social media but don't know where to begin.

1 person found this helpful

Challenge Accepted

Revolutionary ideas to use social media to make disciples within a social platform online marketplace!

1 person found this helpful

Excellent

This book changed my perspective on digital ministry. Good practical advice as well as a ministry philosophy that will change the way you do church.

1 person found this helpful

Misleading title

Judging from the title, I thought this would be more of a general guide to why and how go minister through social media, and while the first third of the book did not disappoint, the majority of the book is devoted to the why and very specifically how to start an online Facebook (specifically) church campus. I wish I would have known going in so I could have gone with a note general tool to understanding and developing your social media into a ministry focused model. Since a Facebook campus is not what we’ve chosen to do as a church, most of this book became irrelevant and not what I expected from the title. If starting an online (Facebook!) campus is your goal, this is the book for you!

On target, if not prophetic….

Really sound principles and advice for a new, transforming idea of church. It really hits the mark as we watch the Ukrainian and other churches who are now refugees continue to minister across continents.

Loved it but...

I've been a born-again Christian since 1972, and am presently working on an outreach involving Youtube videos shown mostly in Asian and African nations, so I was totally on board for the first two-thirds of this book. The author uses the phrase "not relevant" to describe the 350,000 American churches. I'd have said "carnal because of their (our) unprecedented prosperity". "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also". Social media works because users get an ego buzz every time they receive a notification. That's the "treasure" delivered via smart phones that we have to compete with.

But the idea of building a "Facebook campus" within existing local churches? Really? West coast members of a Florida church? Did I miss the part about how to handle the "worst case" security issues? What about those misbehaving in the name of the Lord? You're a pastor. Can you imagine NOT personally visiting any member of your real (as opposed to virtual) congregation? How do you manage 1 Cor 5.11 on Facebook?

I loved your aquarium analogy. Modern churches today are still using a 2000 year old model. Buy or rent a building. Hold meetings there. Talk to people about Jesus whenever you can. Television was resisted at first (Billy Graham), and so is the Internet today. Consider this though: I'm paying $10 per day to promote just two of my Youtube videos: "How to study the Bible", and "How to Share the Gospel". In the last seven days those two videos together were played 13,883 times. Total watch time? 565 hours. Top three countries based on number of views? India (4286), Philippines (3370), Indonesia (1213). That's not because the videos are great: It's because I paid Google $70 to be sure people saw and clicked on them. Here's one of the two videos: https://youtu.be/ehdO7XVGNEk

This isn't a promotion for my program. It is though, a call to consider using the model somewhere in what you're already doing. You no doubt have people who know how to produce and place Youtube videos. The formula that produced those numbers just now is Google Ads > New Campaign > Without Goals > Video > Custom > Skippable > Standard inventory > ALL COUNTRIES. Note: Google Ads are expensive for anything local. The trick for ultra-low pricing is to run the ads where no one else in this country is: I.e. Overseas (ex Europe).... hence the "All Countries". The goal therefore can't be to promote any local church: It's simply preaching the gospel, or teaching others how to.

Definitely worth reading

If you want to keep expanding the kingdom of God and explore different ways to do it. This is a must read.

Great resource for today and beyond

This is a great resource for ministering in our time and beyond the church's current challenges