How people perceive you greatly influences whether or not they will receive what you have to say. In the day that we are living, it is definitely a different world than it was 20 or 30 years ago. With cell phones & computers you can now do everything from make a phone call to do your banking and even have online social interactions. Our world has changed because of these. Along with this, it’s changed how people interact with one another.

As a result, this has changed how we do church to a large degree. Or at least it should. Let’s be honest, we don’t have the personal connections that we used have with people. Its just part of our modern day culture that we are living in. However, that does not mean that we cannot fill the churches we lead with hungry people. In this socially disconnected age that we are living, people are looking for something that is real and genuine.

One thing that websites, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are able to do for us that churches of past generations were not able to do is to quickly create or change the perception the community has about our church.

• In the past, if your church received a bad reputation for any reason, it was pretty much branded for good. Churches really had few ways of telling the public all the good that it was doing. So when something bad happened, it had no way of defending itself from the local gossip or rumors.

• New churches too had very little means of showing their neighbors who they were or ways of presenting an inviting image. Where it took years to get the word out about the new church, it can happen in literal minutes via Facebook or Twitter.

What an amazing tool a church website and these social media platforms can be to show the public all the awesome things that your church is doing. It’s amazing what a website with pictures of smiling, happy people can do for a church’s image in it’s community. Facebook too has the ability to quickly present a positive image of your church and quickly change the perception that people may have of your church.

Having the right person who is capable of presenting the image you want your church to have online is very important. If your website isn’t being updated or people don’t see the latest events and pictures on your social media platforms, it tells a visitor that nothing is happening at your church. Your church could very well have tons of incredibly exciting things happening, but if you don’t show them online, your communities perception of your church is not going to be as impactful.

Does your church have guests as a direct result of your website or social media platform’s presence? If not you could be missing out on some real growth. Of course we all still rely on our congregants to tell others about our God and our church.  But understand, nowhere is that easier to do than on Facebook. It is entirely possible that a church can have tremendous growth simply by engaging members to “like” or “share” or “post” content on their social media pages.