Welcome to the social networking age! Oh yes, everything in the internet nowadays must carry that word ’social’ or they will be so outdated, or so 2009 as they say it.. In recent years the internet has become so accessible to all people, people no longer need a computer to exist in the internet. They can make their presence by their cellular phones, be it the iPhone, Blackberry, or even any humble Nokia 1210 series.

It is no coincidence also that the biggest name in the social networking world now is.. yes, you know I was going to say it, Facebook! (Sorry Twitter..)

Facebook trend seems to sweep the whole world, more than anything ever in the world of internet. MySpace and Friendster are still there, kicking around, but everyday more and more are switching to Facebook because all of their friends did earlier.

I got to admit I was underestimating Facebook two years ago (that was 2008). I signed up because my friend already signed up to it. In 2009 I got more active in the Facebook, checking it everyday but never participate much. In 2010, I spent my time more in Facebook than checking my email.

Why? Because it keeps on improving its features and those features makes people spent more and more time in Facebook. For example, in 2008 Facebook didn’t have the chat feature. There was also few applications, if anything useful. But it is really the goal of Mark Zuckerberg, the young genius behind the Facebook, to make people spent their online time in Facebook and not needing to browse to other websites. Sounds impossible? Well, let’s just see it two years from now.

Anyway, enough for the presentation of what I know about Facebook, now what are the things that you must know that Facebook can do for your church.

1. Reaching The Youth

You heard me saying that more and more people are spending their time in Facebook, and you should use it for your church advantage. Radio and Television stations all know about this secret, if you are having people’s attention, you have the power.

The fact is more and more youth are using internet, and more and more time they spend in Facebook. You’ve got to use this to reach them. You have the greater chance to get their attention now using Facebook than using radio or TV (unless it’s national TV of course).

Still don’t get what I meant? Here’s the step by step:
1. If your church doesn’t have a Facebook page, go create one.. now.
2. If your church doesn’t have a Facebook group, login to that account or your account and create one.. now.
3. Add as a Friend all the youth people in your church that exist in Facebook, and add all also the adults so they don’t’ get mad (just kidding..).
4. Try post an invitation that you are going to held a free lunch this coming Sunday in your house and see what happens.

Here’s my guarantee: If no one replies to your invitation, I will pay for the free lunch. (I’m not serious, you know it).

2. Increase The Non-Sabbath Interaction

Here’s a little problem with SDA youth communication channel; they only runs on Sabbath. Don’t believe me? Try to volunteer to help the youth leader this term and you will believe me in less than few weeks.

It’s really a classic story, you talk to your church friends about the plan that you are going to have next Sabbath, and you guys have divided the responsibilities and everything looks good until the next Sabbath you find out that no one has done anything.

Why? Because for the whole week none of you know what other’s are doing or maybe everyone forgets what they should do.

But like I’ve told you before, it’s so 2009 man! If your friends are in Facebook, high chance is they will check their Facebook at least once a day. You can send them message or even chat with them whenever they are online, or you can also post message on their wall to get their attention.

What if they are not checking their Facebook that often? Don’t worry, all the notifications from Facebook will be sent to their email address. It simply increase the chance they will get the message compared to the traditional method of emailing them only.

3. Maintain The Ties

However beautiful time we have with our fellow brothers and sisters in the church, at one point in our life we must go somewhere else for school, job, marriage, or whatever reasons.

Keeping the communication is important because it gives us a stronger sense of family and we might help each other in time of needs. With Facebook you can easily check what’s going on in the lives of your previous church members so you always have something to talk about, use this for your advantage.

You can even check how they look now and where they have been from the photos with their name tagged.

For example, from a Facebook status or Photos you know that a previous church member who moved to a new place two years ago just got married last Sunday. You can easily send her a congratulation message and share about what’s going on for the previous two years.

4. Have The Always Updated Contact Information

If you ever tried to create a church member database you know one thing for sure; having it updated is a lot harder than having it created. People change their cell phone numbers, email, or addresses. It’s not like few decades ago where people usually change their contact information once every several years.

Nowadays people change their cellphone number or email addresses often, and you may not always know this before you need it.

Here’s the good news, people update their own contact information on Facebook,  you don’t even need to do the job.

Even if they don’t, you still contact them through Facebook with the advantages explained in the point number two above.

To be Continued…

All right, those are the four things that you can use for your church advantage. I was planning to include the things that Facebook cannot do for your church but it seems that it will be too long for a single blog post, so check out next time for the part 2 of this post for the list of things that unfortunately Facebook cannot help you with.

As always, if you have any comment, ideas, or even better, experiences, about using Facebook for your church advantage, please leave your comment here.

photo by Rafael Fischer (http://iasd.org)

AY Department is probably one of the most important department in a church because it prepares the next generation for their responsibilities to God and fellow men. Unfortunately in most churches it is also probably the department that has least attention.

I’ve had a year experience as my church Adventist Youth (AY) Leader. The church was a petite one, with only more or less 10 youth in total. However, the lessons that I learned I believe are quite fundamental and exist in other churches as well.

In this post I want to share some of the lessons that I have the great opportunity to learn during my AY leadership term.

Lesson #1. Every church has its own problem

So you see another ‘ideal’ church and you start envying how on Earth they could be so perfect in all AY aspects? Great programs, great parents support, cool officers, and other things that make you want to move to that particular church.

Well, believe me, there is no all-perfect church, and that church that you think is the heavenly church is no exception. That church must have one or more problems that it’s facing.

There is one church in Jakarta that is famous for its number of youth. It has a great choir group with full schedule, beautiful girls, and handsome guys, and very active AY members.

I happened to have a chance to talk to one of its AY member, and I was surprised with what I heard. She said that there is actually some internal problem among the youth. Well well well.., who would’ve thought?

What’s my point?

Don’t get panic and discouraged when you meet a challenging problem. That’s really the life fact since the second Adam and Eve sinned. Problems are in nature just like the gravitational force, and as the AY leader, you are the lucky person who should handle them. Hehehe..!

Don’t get mad at me yet. It’s really your responsibility to handle those AY problems, but always work with the other AY officers and church officers to solve the problem.

Lesson #2. Have a Purpose

Allright, I’m not actually promoting the book “The Purpose Driven Life” here, though yeah, the book is a great one.

Rather I’m encouraging every AY leader to have a deeper purpose rather than just be an AY leader.

What does it mean?

When I was the AY leader of my church, I always have this purpose of “teaching the teens and kids in my church so that they will be smarter and better person when they are at my age later.”

That way I always prioritize programs that are aligned with this purpose, such as Adventurer and Pathfinder programs.

Having a purpose means you have a higher goal than just completing your one year AY leader term. This will help you set out one year AY plan, help you cope up with problems that come to you, and feel more sense of accomplishment when you are done.

Please make it personally, not something that you got from the Pathfinder Guide Book or any pre-made sources. Because you won’t feel the passion to do it unless it really comes your personal thought.

Lesson #3. Be patient, have an open mind, and be tactful

Now I should admit that this is one of the toughest thing that I learned. I thought having seen so much in Philippines, Singapore, and Indonesia, I must already possessed enough level of the so called ‘open mind’.

Maybe, but there is no word ‘enough’ for this. There is really so many different people in this world, and this world always have a ready stock of people that can make you crazy.

So what should you do?

First, keep your head cool. Then talk to them and get to know them better. Try to know their passions, goals, and hobbies.

Why?

Because from my experience, people that are bad and kill joy at one event, may be the central of the universe and heroes at other events. They who you believe ruin one of your carefully planned program may be just the person who save your face in other program.

It’s similar to the colors of different painting. Blue may be the color of choice when you are painting a scene with lots of skies in it. But not be a good choice when you are painting a close up flower.

Knowing your AY members will give you a great advantage of choosing the right people for the right time. It will give a win-win situation for you and the AY members.

Lastly, never think that people should always think like you do, because naturally they just don’t. Keep your mind open for different opinions and options. Besides, who knows that these opinions and options may be better than your original ideas.

Lesson #4. Network With Other AY Leaders And, If Possible, AY Mentor

Who says that networking only work in business world? Leading a church AY will be a lot more fun and interesting when you have fellow AY leaders to share and discuss with.

Some problems may not be as hard as you thought before when seen from other person’s point of view. Some problems may already even solved by other person, so you don’t need to find out the solution further.

When I was an AY leader, I had a very good friend of mine who happened was the AY leader of her church. It is really encouraging when you can talk to someone who isn’t only understand the situation, but also can feel the problem.

Having an AY mentor is actually an ideal situation, a utopia for every AY leader, especially for a beginner. Unfortunately, it is a very rare condition because what happen most of the time is rather a sad fact.

Most of ex-AY leaders are usually very much tired and exhausted with the AY affairs. With several famous reasons such as ‘no longer a youth’, or ‘i’m already married’, these ex-AY leaders are actually wasting their precious experiences that can help any current AY leader to repeat the same mistakes.

However, I believe you still can consult them every now and then. To recognize them early is really important, because usually they play low profile once they complete their term.

One important notice though in networking, please don’t think that it’s an obligation for your fellow AY leaders and AY mentor to help you. They are just like you, so they probably have their own problems. Do return the favors and offer them help if you can do something for them. This will keep a healthy relationship.

Lesson #5. It’s Not About You, It’s About Jesus and Others

When I knew I was elected as AY leader,  I was not only surprised, I was outraged. How on Earth??? Why me? I almost never attend the AY when I studied in college, though it was Adventist college. Once even I got a ‘prize’ for being the person who attend the least number of AY. (It was the idea of the AY leader, she really knew how to recognize the lazy AY goers.. :p).

So I thought, okay, whatever, just let see what gonna happen.

To my surprise, it wasn’t actually that bad. Besides, it’s pretty cool to be an AY leader sometimes. It caught girls attention pretty good sometimes.

However, I realized it’s totally wrong to think selfishly when you are the AY leader. Jesus has showed us that to lead is actually to serve. I know it sounds cliche, but trust me, it’s hard to refuse the chance to use your position for some selfish reasons. Especially when people don’t notice and it’s all covered in great programs.

Always pray to God, ask for His help, and surrender yourself and your plans fully to Him. Because when He takes control, it just can’t get wrong.

Wrap Up

Remember guys, an AY leader has a really great responsibility. It’s the person who the younger kids are look up too. Whatever examples that the AY leader showed, they are what the kids will most probably do when they grew up later.

Don’t do it because you were elected and you have no choice. If you feel so, please consider resigning, because it will only hurt yourself and the AY.

So far, these five tips are what I can share with you. If you have problems and suggestions about AY, feel free to contact me.