Study: Churches Increasingly Fans of Facebook, Social Media

Fri, Jan. 21 2011
By LifeWay Research

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Churches are turning increasingly to social networking tools as ministry aids and Facebook is by far the most popular tool, according to a new study by LifeWay Research.

The survey of 1,003 Protestant congregations was conducted in September and sponsored by LifeWay’s Digital Church partner, Fellowship Technologies. It found that 47 percent of churches actively use Facebook.

The second most popular way of networking is through the tools included in church management software packages, actively used by 20 percent of congregations. Three percent use MySpace, 2 percent a church-specific package like Cobblestone, Unifyer, or The City, and 1 percent use Ning.

However, a full 40 percent of churches do not use any social networking tools. the rest