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By Doug Bunze*
7:00 A.M. EDT June 29, 2011 | GULF BREEZE, Fla. (UMNS)
Gulf Breeze (Fla.) United Methodist Church’s custom-made private social
network allows the Rev. Jack Kale to engage the congregation “more than
one hour a week.” UMNS photos courtesy of Doug Bunze.
View in Photo Gallery
It’s Friday, and the Rev. Jack Kale is doing what he frequently does
on a day off: household chores. But as all pastors know, there’s no such
thing as a day off when you are doing God’s work.
As soon as he drops off the kids at school, his focus shifts from
the family to-do list to the Sunday sermon. He thinks about his message
all week long, and he wants his congregation to do the same. With
technology, this is now easily done.
Rev. Kale sits down at his kitchen table, opens his laptop, and
signs on to gbNetwork, the private social network of Gulf Breeze (Fla.)
United Methodist Church. He talks into his webcam. “Have you ever just
wanted to start over? Have you ever wanted to restart part of your
life?”
The message is less than two minutes. Kale uploads to the
gbNetwork, closes his laptop, and goes back to his to-do list. On a
Friday morning, in less than five minutes and from the comfort of his
home, he’s engaged his congregation. It’s a give-and-take that has
enormous value.
Over the next two days, hundreds of members of the church will
view his message on gbNetwork. They often will post comments about
relevant experiences in their lives that pertain to his message. Kale
frequently will incorporate their thoughts into future Sunday sermons.
“I used to have one hour a week on Sundays with my congregation,”
he said. “Now I engage the congregation 24 hours a day seven days a
week. That’s amazing.”
Social media pioneer
Kale is a pioneer in the use of church social networking. A few years
ago, he started using Facebook. Then he added Twitter. Then he launched
a private social network for the church.
“Facebook was great for outreach, but it was public, so I
couldn’t fully engage the congregation. I wanted a private social
network for my church that would facilitate social interaction on a more
personal level. gbNetwork does that.”
The private network was used at first only by the congregation of
Worship at the Water, Gulf Breeze’s outreach church where Kale is
pastor. The church has services at a restaurant on Pensacola Beach. The
network was so successful that Gulf Breeze’s senior pastor, the Rev.
Shane Stanford, rolled it out to the entire congregation in February.
gbNetwork is a private social network available only to members of Gulf Breeze United Methodist Church.
View in Photo Gallery
Stanford said the church “is committed to building a church of small
groups—of people drawn together for care of one another, for fellowship,
for prayer and for study. And, any way that makes this process easier,
more efficient and more effective in living out the image of God in each
of us, is not only a tool for ministry, but a divine gift.”
More than 600 church members have joined gbNetwork. They go to it
often, and spend a lot of time on it. In three months, there have been
more than 76,000 page views, and the average visit lasts more than nine
minutes.
“Nearly half of the people who have signed up visit gbNetwork
between one and six times a day. That’s staggering, ” said Andrew
Wagner, the designer of the platform and the chief products officer for Connection Applications, a company that creates private networks for churches.
The congregation uses gbNetwork to build profiles, upload
pictures, pray and share all aspects of their lives. When the BP oil
spill devastated area beaches last summer, Kale created a group online
to organize volunteers to help with the cleanup. Now, there are nearly
50 small groups that have been created on the platform, including groups
for disaster relief, children’s ministry, body gospel fitness and
singles.
“Our groups are now able to more effectively interact. It’s very helpful to everyone,” Kale said.
As with most pastors, the demands on Kale’s time can be
overwhelming. Social networking tools such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube
and gbNetwork allow him to more efficiently and widely engage the
congregation in ways that weren’t possible only a few years ago.
Kale says social networking is just one more tool to keep the
church more relevant in the lives of the congregation. “It’s important
for churches to go where the people are, and the people are online.”
*Bunze is a freelance writer in Gulf Breeze, Fla.
News media contact: Joey Butler, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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