One of the many “other duties as assigned” is social media. Many children’s, youth, and next-generation ministry leaders get tasked with the responsibility of curating, creating, and posting on social media. Love it or hate it, social media is where many of your ministries’ parents are, and it can be used as an effective equipping tool. If it’s done well.
Your Job Is to Disciple
When you think about the sheer number of tasks you must accomplish each and every week, it can, at times, feel overwhelming. Or perhaps you start to question “what is the purpose of all of this?” Regardless of what your day-to-day, week-to-week looks like, remember that your goal is to disciple. You’re doing more than just planning events, more than just making sure everyone has a waiver on file, and more than sending yet another email. You are discipling.
If your ultimate job description is discipleship, social media then becomes a discipleship tool. Viewing it as such might just change how you do and feel about social media.
Social Media Is Not Just an Announcement Board
Take a look at your church’s social media posts over the last few months. Are they primarily announcements about events, service times, and key information your church members need? If your answer was yes, chances are, your engagement was pretty low, too.
Social media is not meant to be a one-way communication, pushing out reminders and event invites. When all you post is information, you aren’t engaging parents, and you aren’t discipling. Announcements, invites, and reminders on social media can be helpful. They are a great way to get information to families, but they should not be the primary content.
Announcements are a big part of social media posting. Take a load off designing your own and use some of Church Visuals Social Media Graphics, which you can customize.
Equip Parents to Disciple Their Kids
Scripturally, dad and mom are called to be the primary disciple-makers of their children:
“You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise” (Deuteronomy 6:7)
If dad and mom are called to disciple their children, and we, the church, are called to equip believers, social media can and should be a tool in which we are equipping dad and mom to disciple.
Remind them of their calling as disciple-makers.
Use posts, carousels, and reels to remind parents that God has called them to disciple. This should echo what is being said from the pulpit.
Ways to Equip:
- Use scripture in your posts and videos on the importance of parents discipling.
- Come at it from a tone of encouragement, not one of shame.
- Think about engagement. How can you remind parents of their role in a way that engages them with your post?
- Add a passage of scripture to your Mother’s or Father’s Day graphics to equip parents.
Church Visuals has editable graphics you can use for holidays and special events.
editable graphics for holidays
View All
Encourage Parents in Their Own Faith
You’ve heard the phrase “you can’t pour from an empty cup,” right? This is true for parents. Post faith-growing content on your social media channels to encourage parents to grow in their faith. Maybe this is a short weekly devotion video for parents from you or another staff member, a weekly Bible reading challenge, a faith question for parents to think about through the week, or a great worship song or prompt.
Social Media Discipleship Quick Tips:
- Even if you are technically only responsible for the kids or youth, you are to equip and disciple parents, too. They can’t disciple if they don’t have a faith to pass on. Ask yourself, “How can I help my parents grow?”
- Get your senior pastor on board! A weekly 2-minute devo from the pastor is great for the whole church!
- While sharing a weekly Bible verse post might seem like a discipleship win, ask the question of whether it is discipling or engaging families? Go a step further than just posting a Bible verse.
Mini-Movies from Church Visuals are great for posting on social media for parents and kids.
Provide Tools for At-Home Worship & Discussion
For parents to be fulfilling their role as disciple-makers, they are to be leading at home. How can you equip them to do this via social media? This could be a weekly devotion video that puts parents in the driver’s seat of what their child will be learning at church. Perhaps you could post some “talk about it” questions throughout the week to get families discussing the week’s lesson, or maybe you have a weekly Bible reading challenge posted each week.
Social Media Discipleship Quick Tips:
- Do a Sunday recap video. Go over the memory verse, key point, main passages, or what you learned. This will help parents know what happened.
- Make a weekly devotion video, host it on your church’s YouTube channel, and post it on social media. This is also great when kids miss church.
- Have a graphic that parents can screenshot with a simple Bible reading plan for the week.
- Share the kids/teens favorite worship video so families can worship at home.
Did you know Church Visuals have lots of great worship videos from Doorpost Songs, Seeds Kids Worship and more?
kids worship videos
View All
At RenewaNation, we are fully engaged in this battle for the hearts and minds of our children. As we help families, churches, and schools lead them to Christ and give them a biblical worldview, they are prepared to go out and renew our broken world.
Remind Parents of Available Resources
When you send home discipleship resources for families (devotions, books, worship albums, etc.), how do you make sure families know they are available? Use social media to 1) inform parents a new resource is coming out/available, 2) train them on how to use the resource (these doubles as a training piece for parents, which is a key aspect of a comprehensive family ministry strategy), and 3) remind them to use the resource.
Years ago, I sent home a year-long Bible memory verse challenge. Around March, I posted a picture of that month’s verse on my refrigerator, asking parents to comment if they have memorized that month’s verse yet. This was my way of reminding parents of the resource. I had a mom comment that they forgot all about the resource and were going to pull it out and use it, though months late. Sometimes parents have the best intentions, but get sidetracked or just plain forget. Social media is a great way to remind parents of the resources you’ve made available to them.
Social Media Discipleship Quick Tips:
- Challenge families to send pictures of themselves using the resource you sent home and share them on social media. This will both remind and encourage other families to use their resources.
- Remember to share the why behind the resource. You aren’t sending home stuff because you had extra budget money! Share the why!
Ministry Graphics
Kid Resources Now Available
View Product
Shift from Informing to Equipping
Whether social media has been assigned to you or not, it is a valuable tool for equipping parents. You just need to shift your mindset. Sure, there will be posts letting your church members know about events and services. Facebook and Instagram are effective tools for informing a large group of people about things.
Shift your thinking, though, and consider this: If social media is an effective tool for informing large groups of people about information, how effective can your social media be for equipping a large group of people, the parents in your ministry, to disciple? Don’t just inform. Equip and disciple.
ready-made kids and student visuals
With all Church Visuals Plus plans, you get unlimited access to our Ready-Made library of instant, downloadable graphics and videos for your student and kids ministries. Plus access to over 1,000 church media training resources to train your team how to implement media in your kids or student ministry.
