Pastoral Reflection 3.6.16
Easter, Invitations, and Social Media
Easter is just a few weeks away and CoaH is making major efforts to use this time strategically. Besides doing the Questioning Christianity series, CoaH is focusing a lot of energy on Easter Week activities to connect people to Christ and the church: Pub & Theology on March 21, Good Friday at Faneuil Hall on March 25, and our Easter Gatherings March 27.
These events are just part of our vision: to give every man, woman, boy, and girl in our area the chance to hear and respond to the gospel. As great as that vision is, we are just a tiny organization in a global city. This Easter, to get word out around the city we are rolling out our new T-ad on trains, buses, and platforms. In addition, we are sending a matching mailer to our area inviting people to Easter week events.
These are all useful efforts but the truth is, if CoaH is your church family, you are the greatest resource to get word out about CoaH. The network of relationships CoaH folks have across this city is astounding and many of our friends, neighbors, and co-workers are not connected to any church. For that reason we are asking you to get involved in helping promote CoaH and invite people to our Easter events. One way to help promote CoaH is social media. It won’t take a lot of effort but it has the potential to impact thousands. Here’s what we are asking you to do.
1. Like our Facebook page and “Check-in” on Sundays at CoaH this month. The average Facebook user has 338 friends and CoaH averages around 250 adults. If you multiply that out, it equals over 84,000 people in our Facebook networks. Yes, some are the same people but still, that number is astounding! That means when we, together, “Like” CoaH and we “check in” it shows up in 10’s of thousands of feeds. That kind of exposure is shown to create interest. We want to get people to see your check in, connect with our Facebook page, and hopefully click the link to our website.
2. Follow @CoaHChurch and Post Instagram photos, tagging #coahchurch. Some of you don’t use Facebook a lot but you are on Instagram. We want you to getting involved by posting photos of your CG, hanging out with other CoaH folks, pics from Sunday gatherings, etc. Facebook may tell people about CoaH but Instagram SHOWS them what CoaH is like. Over the next few weeks, during the pre-service announcements on the screens, we will be displaying tagged Instagram photos from the week.
We believe in this strategy so much we are going to commit to send $5 to the International Justice Mission (ijm.org), for each Facebook Check In this month, up to 200 check ins (sorry, only Fbook Check Ins get credit). IJM works to stop human trafficking worldwide and here’s your chance to support CoaH’s Easter outreach and IJM!
I’ll share some other ways you can get involved next week but today, I ask you to please pray for our Easter outreach and get involved through Facebook and Instagram!
‘Till All Have Heard,
Pastor Bland