1. Facebook Ads
Let’s face it. Facebook is free. The reason that it can be provided for free to nearly the entire world is due primarily to its advertisements. Advertisements are not inherently bad in and of themselves but the advertisements on Facebook pose several problems that hinder local church community.
The greatest problem that Facebook’s advertisements pose to the church is that of temptation to sin. Particularly sexual sin. Facebook’s advertisements often include women that expose way too much of their body as a way to entice both men and women. For the men, this can be extremely deadly as it leads to an unnecessary battle with temptation at best, and a full-on fall into pornography and adultery at worst. For women, this can cause many other problems, one of which is a body image problem. We do not need to belabor the depths of the trauma that can be obtained from these ads; simply suffice to note that they are antithetical to the local church and have caused many brothers and sisters to stumble.
2. Facebook does not include the entire church
One of the primary problems that I hear from individuals regarding a choice in a communication platform is that of user engagement. One of the primary goals of a communication platform for the church is that ALL of the members be a part of the application. Unfortunately, most of the communication platforms out there require user interaction before they become a part of the system.
Facebook is no exception. Although many people are on Facebook, a large number of Christians, in particular, avoid the platform due to many reasons. Some avoid it due to the previous issue regarding sexual temptation. Others avoid it due to the distraction that it poses to a productive, godly life. Yet others avoid it because of the competitive nature of the platform and the way it creates insecurity and disappointment in its users. Although there are many reasons why people are not on the platform, the point remains: Facebook does not provide a way to comprehensively connect with all of the members of the church.
3. Facebook has many distractions that deter from local church community
A local church should be a family. It should be a safe place for believers to share, love, and be loved. If this is such an essential part of a local church, why should the communication platform be any different?
One of the biggest problems of using Facebook as a church communication platform is that it is that there is so much more happening within the Facebook app than just the local church. You see your friends, and their friends, advertisements, and events. You see messages and posts from high-school classmates and your 2000 “friends” around the globe. The truth is, Facebook was not designed to be an exclusive communication platform for a local church, but a platform to connect with anyone and everyone.
Thus, when you enter the Facebook app, you do not feel the sense of safety and community that are so essential to foster healthy church community and interaction. Rather, you feel like your local church community is just one small part of every other community in your life; all of which bombard you upon entering the app. This distraction can serve to foster a sense that the church community is truly not special and distinct from the rest of your communities. In the same minute, in the same app, you can be both attempting to share your heart with your church and watching your old co-worker pouring ice water on their head.
By integrating a church community group into an application that ties an individual to nearly every other relationship in their life, a church often nullifies the very sense of community, safety, and fellowship that it desires to foster.
4. Facebook cultivates self-expression instead of community upbuilding
Facebook is designed for self-expression. This means that it is designed to promote self. It gives everyone a platform to put themselves on display and to become a celebrity. It is where individual ideas are promoted and opposing ideas are decimated.
There are many reasons why this dynamic is harmful, especially for the church. The church is meant to be a body, where the whole is built up by what each one supplies. Therefore, the function of the church is the building up of the whole, NOT the exaltation of the self.
A church communication platform should be designed in such a way that it promotes the upbuilding of the community by enabling the members to love and serve one another. Unfortunately, this is quite different than the model promoted by Facebook. Since Facebook is not designed with the concept of biblical community in mind, it has served to create an ecosystem of individualism and self-promotion.
Although a church may think themselves immune to such a culture within their own private Facebook group, they must be aware that such a culture is not easily avoided. Many of the members of Facebook that are using the platform have used the platform for quite a while. They have seen much of this culture take place and even may have been a part of it themselves. It is not something that is easily escaped. Rather, it is something that begins to pervade an individual whenever they enter the app.
The culture that has been cultivated on Facebook has been about self-expression for so long by so many that it is something that is literally felt upon entering the platform. This “feeling” or “culture” is something that can not easily be fixed within a Facebook group. Since a Facebook group is and always will be just a small part of the bigger platform, it will almost always continue to manifest the same culture of self-expression as the platform at large. Thus rendering the goal of the church communication platform void.
5. Facebook's culture feeds self-centeredness and competition instead of mutual upbuilding and sacrificial service
One of the biggest problems that the Facebook culture has created has been that of competition. Since social interaction has begun to be measured in “likes” and “comments”, individuals often feel like they are not as important and not as valued as others. This culture has served to exacerbate a problem that has existed for millennia. As individuals share themselves on Facebook, they often compare themselves to the others that they see on the platform. In the past, this would not have been so clear and apparent. However, being constantly bombarded by the lives and relational interactions of many individuals (most of whom one does not have normal contact with), many of the interactions and statistics that used to be hidden are now open to the public.
Having this kind of information into the lives and relationships of others has become very harmful. It has led many to despair and then subsequent action in an attempt to grab the approval that they desire. Innocent interactions have now become popularity contests used to feed the endless pit of man’s approval and praise.
A good church communication platform must seek to mitigate these issues by providing a method to catalyst church communication and interaction while recognizing our fallen situation. It is important to give the church a platform to communicate and encourage while still building fences so that insecurities are not exacerbated and popularity contests become nonexistent. It must embed the core values of Christian interaction into the application to help cultivate biblical Christian interaction and encouragement.
6. Facebook does not have features that are tailored to catalyst authentic in-person church community
Facebook is a tool that is designed to foster a sense of connectedness with a wide array of people. To accommodate this wide scope, Facebook has to identify the core features that can be shared in common between the majority of its users. Unfortunately, the local church is not the majority of its users. Because of this, many of the features that are important to a local church are not integrated into the platform.
The missing features are often accepted and churches tend to try to fit a square peg into a round hole. In doing so, the church misses out on many features that are truly important to the overall communication and interaction amongst the church. Special engagement mechanisms, such as those used to encourage others that prayers are being offered for them are nonexistent on the platform. Other helpful mechanisms to improve communication and fellowship in the church can be conceived, but Facebook is not going to implement them. Since Facebook has to appeal to an audience much wider than the local church, it tries to focus on the features that are most important to the overall collective of its users. Which brings us to the next point:
7. Facebook's target audience is not the local church
Facebook was not designed for the local church and its target audience is not the local church. This is important because it means that the needs and values of the local church are not weighed into the development of the platform. The local church is treated within the application just like any other group. The concepts are abstracted rather than tailor because the target audience is much larger than the local church. Through the concept of abstraction, Facebook can target a much wider audience at the expense of narrowing its focus to the interests of the whole.
Since the target audience of Facebook is not the local church and the local church probably holds little sway concerning Facebook’s overall business concerns, Facebook does not care to implement the features that are important to a good church communication platform.
A good church communication platform should be designed from the ground up to support the needs of the local church. Its designers should listen to local churches and modify the system according to their needs and biblical values. It should use a biblical worldview to craft an electronic platform according to the realities of sin amongst fallen men and women. It should be easy to use to perform the functions that are most important to a church. All these things and more are things that are essential for a church communication platform but these are things that Facebook is lacking because of its broad audience.
8. Facebook's scope is much broader than communication
Facebook does not limit its focus to communication. Every business must choose how to divide its funds and energies. The larger the scope of the business, the less concern that can be given to a particular area of interest. Facebook, then, has a scope that is much broader than group communication. For example, one of the biggest business purposes, if not the biggest, is to provide a platform in which businesses can advertise to a large variety of audiences. Since this is one of the biggest business purposes in the platform, the application is designed in such a way as to meet this business demand. By choosing to expand the scope of the application to several other concerns other than communication, Facebook has limited their ability to specialize in enhancing and cultivating community (whether or not that is even their goal is arguable).
A church communication platform ought to focus specifically on church communication. In so doing, it can use all its funds and energies into cultivating a deeper sense of fellowship amongst the believers of a local church. By making the mission of the application solely about cultivating deeper relationships within a local church, the platform can serve to keep its mission free from divided interests that might serve to make compromises that would not be in the best interests of church communication.
9. Facebook, as a company, is not concerned about advancing Christ's Kingdom
Facebook is not concerned about Christ and His desire for the world. As such, it is not concerned in any way about advancing the cause of Christ in the world. It does not seek to cultivate relationships in a church that are biblically-centered and free of division. Due to the lack of care, the platform is designed in such a way that the advancement of Christ’s Kingdom is not even given a thought.
A church communication platform should be designed specifically toward the advancement of Christ’s Kingdom and the unity of a local church congregation. By designing the platform specifically toward this goal, the platform, culture, and community begin to slide into the mold that they were designed to fit. In allowing the local churches to provide key insights into how the platform serves the church, the churches can help use the platform to shape their community into a biblically saturated and self-giving community.
10. Facebook's business practices have not warranted trust regarding their use of data
Let’s face it, Facebook has simply not shown themselves to be trustworthy regarding their use of the application data. Church communication ought to be private and secure. It ought to be a safe place where individuals of a local church can share intimate details with the rest of their church family.
Facebook has shown itself to be just about anything but safe and secure. While I do not doubt the technological security about the platform, I do have many doubts about their trustworthiness and their dedication to protecting the private data of churches. To be honest, have they ever given their commitment to helping protect churches from the assault of an unbelieving culture and an assurance that they would not compromise the data? Can we have any confidence that they won’t sell out the data if it is in their best business interest?
A church communication platform should strive to protect the privacy of the local church. The business that backs the platform should see it as part of its core mission to protect the security and privacy of each local church community.