Facebook

Bruxy Cavey is the pastor of The Meeting Place, a cutting edge network of congregations that gather in movie theatres and are making serious inroads into the younger demographic. I read somewhere that Cavey has become a Facebook fan. He uses the social networking website to stay in touch with hundreds of people.

My kids got me on Facebook a while back. I don't use it a lot, but every week one or two new people appear on my computer asking if they can be my "Facebook friends" -- including some of my kids' young adult friends who think my wife and I are really cool. (I'm not kidding.)

And, to my surprise a name popped up on my Facebook wall of an affiliate from my church who has been long gone for several years. I've tried to contact the family several times by old-fashioned methods -- mailed notes, phone messages and e-mails (how outdated!) -- and suddenly, here he is on my Facebook. He's going through some life transitions and apparently wants me to know abou it. There's a pastoral opportunity that I don't think could have come about any other way.

Most congregations still do most of their communicating with photocopied newletters full of all kinds of in house information -- the church version of customer advertising. I wonder whether the cost in time, money and trees is really worth it. Maybe it is for a certain generation.

How come we're not really getting into tools like Facebook. If you want to know where to find young people and how to stay in touch with lots of them quickly, this is it.