Shaun King is the Lead Pastor at The Courageous Church, a new congregation that opened its doors for the first time in Atlanta, Georgia earlier this month. Prior to founding The Courageous Church, Pastor Shaun was a mentor at several inner-city Atlanta schools. He's worked tirelessly in his community as a volunteer and activist, often using Facebook and other online tools to organize. While Facebook does not endorse any particular religion or belief system, we believe that there is broader meaning to Shaun King's story, which is why we've... asked him to post on the Facebook blog about his experiences using the site.
The Courageous Church is a vibrant, diverse community of faith—not just a Sunday morning destination. Our mission is to bring people together from throughout our city to be a catalyst for positive change in the lives of our members and take up causes that are in desperate need of attention. While many of our goals and dreams are tied to the Church, the ways that we've used Facebook to build our organization and reach out to people can be duplicated by anyone for any purpose—religious or secular.
Churches have an important role to play in fostering a sense of community, which is especially important in a city as large as Atlanta. There's a saying around here: when you run out of sugar in Atlanta, you don't borrow it from your neighbor—you just cook something that doesn't need sugar. We're trying to change this prevailing sense of disconnectedness thanks to the pervasive power of technology. People aren't just connected to those that live on their block anymore. They can go online with Facebook and connect with hundreds—even thousands—of friends in ways that are surprisingly deep and real. For so many of us, Facebook is not just an online accessory to our daily lives but an active community that we engage with every day.
So when we decided to launch The Courageous Church here in downtown Atlanta, it was natural to build our community from within the Facebook community. We organized a Facebook group and invited friends in Atlanta and around the world to join. But we didn't stop there. We shared information—status updates, messages, wall posts, notes and more. Leading up to our church's grand opening, we purchased Facebook ads to attract more attendees to our first service. For less than half the cost of traditional marketing activities, our Facebook ads engaged tens of thousands of people throughout Atlanta helping us generate an audience of nearly seven hundred people for our first Sunday service. Facebook helped us connect with people like Tiffany Nichols and Whitney Wright, and today, over half of the people that are a part of our church first learned about us on Facebook.
We've also used Facebook to rally our congregants around important causes. We recently took up an effort to purchase new school uniforms and toys for every child at a local Atlanta elementary school. Our congregants used Facebook to share our mission and mobilize their friends. Our initiative spread like wildfire. With the support of hundreds of people from twenty-two states in the U.S. and several countries around the world, we raised more than $20,000 for our efforts.
At a time when people are struggling to find a place where they belong, we're inspired by the connectedness that Facebook enables. We encourage other organizations to think about how to use technologies like Facebook to galvanize and elevate their efforts. We shouldn't accept the idea that we don't know our neighbors.
Shaun King, the Lead Pastor at The Courageous Church, hopes you'll reach out, connect and reap the rewards.
See MoreThe Courageous Church is a vibrant, diverse community of faith—not just a Sunday morning destination. Our mission is to bring people together from throughout our city to be a catalyst for positive change in the lives of our members and take up causes that are in desperate need of attention. While many of our goals and dreams are tied to the Church, the ways that we've used Facebook to build our organization and reach out to people can be duplicated by anyone for any purpose—religious or secular.
Churches have an important role to play in fostering a sense of community, which is especially important in a city as large as Atlanta. There's a saying around here: when you run out of sugar in Atlanta, you don't borrow it from your neighbor—you just cook something that doesn't need sugar. We're trying to change this prevailing sense of disconnectedness thanks to the pervasive power of technology. People aren't just connected to those that live on their block anymore. They can go online with Facebook and connect with hundreds—even thousands—of friends in ways that are surprisingly deep and real. For so many of us, Facebook is not just an online accessory to our daily lives but an active community that we engage with every day.
So when we decided to launch The Courageous Church here in downtown Atlanta, it was natural to build our community from within the Facebook community. We organized a Facebook group and invited friends in Atlanta and around the world to join. But we didn't stop there. We shared information—status updates, messages, wall posts, notes and more. Leading up to our church's grand opening, we purchased Facebook ads to attract more attendees to our first service. For less than half the cost of traditional marketing activities, our Facebook ads engaged tens of thousands of people throughout Atlanta helping us generate an audience of nearly seven hundred people for our first Sunday service. Facebook helped us connect with people like Tiffany Nichols and Whitney Wright, and today, over half of the people that are a part of our church first learned about us on Facebook.
We've also used Facebook to rally our congregants around important causes. We recently took up an effort to purchase new school uniforms and toys for every child at a local Atlanta elementary school. Our congregants used Facebook to share our mission and mobilize their friends. Our initiative spread like wildfire. With the support of hundreds of people from twenty-two states in the U.S. and several countries around the world, we raised more than $20,000 for our efforts.
At a time when people are struggling to find a place where they belong, we're inspired by the connectedness that Facebook enables. We encourage other organizations to think about how to use technologies like Facebook to galvanize and elevate their efforts. We shouldn't accept the idea that we don't know our neighbors.
Shaun King, the Lead Pastor at The Courageous Church, hopes you'll reach out, connect and reap the rewards.
