MySpace

Many view MySpace as a cesspool – a cyber, secular sin-bin. And they have a point. Indeed, the social networking site has privacy concerns. Sometimes young teens don’t understand that what they post is available for anyone to see (unless someone teaches them how to use the privacy settings). Likewise, pornographers and spammers infiltrate private profiles and trick unsuspecting users into clicking on something inappropriate.

Keeping all of those concerns in mind, MySpace still provides a tremendous opportunity for churches, particularly since most of the people they are trying to reach use it, and those who use it safely – by devising an elaborate password from a safe e-mail address – have seen a great benefit.

Grace Community Church in Clarksville, Tenn., has existed for less than three years, but one of its first moves was to get on MySpace. “My 14-year-old son started it and it caught on quickly,” recalls Ron Edmondson, co-pastor of the church.

At the time, it was revolutionary for churches to start MySpace pages, as Web 2.0 was new to everyone’s lexicon. Now, two years later, this church is filling up a large high school Sunday mornings on the city’s outskirts. Edmondson estimates their attendance is 1,100 each weekend. More than 550 belong to the church’s MySpace friend network.

The church’s MySpace reach expands beyond its own site, too. Edmondson’s Web ministry has a MySpace page, as do the professional musicians in the church – among them is Jason Roy of the popular Christian band, Building 429. These other places help stir traffic to the MySpace page. The church’s teenage ministry has its own page, as well.

“So far, we’ve not been hacked into,” Edmondson relays. “We used to get spam friend-requests, but you just look at them before you approve them.” He says that inoculated Christian MySpace equivalents – such as DittyTalk and MyPraize – haven’t worked as well as MySpace because people aren’t as familiar with them.

“The culture we’re trying to reach is unchurched,” he explains. “We want to reach them in their culture, in their world.”

Edmondson claims the biggest value of MySpace to his church has been internal communication. Most of the teen and college members elect to send him social network messages instead of e-mail, and they often ask the reverend tough questions or propose mission ideas.

“Hardly a day goes by that I don’t get a message from someone in our church,” he says. “And it’s usually deeper than, ‘Hi, how ya doin?’”