Darren,

My name is Eric Hargrove. I have quite a background in the digital marketing and social media space. Currently I am an Exec. Acct. Mgr. with Lozatech (http://www.lozatech.com).

I stumbled upon your blog and found this topic intriguing so I thought I would give a little input.

I would say that it is importantfor the church to consider a Social Media presence, however, I would take the opportunity map out a very detailed strategic plan.

Questions that I might ask are:

What do you hope to achieve through the use of social networking for the church?

Which members and what percentage of the congregation to you believe would add the church's offering of social media to their current social media menu?

What might be the financial benefits or possibilities of Social Media for the church. (E-tithing, virtual tickets to events for fundraising)

How Social Media be used to grow the congregation?

Do you have structures in place and members of the church community that are skilled and enrolled in taking on the accountability for the maintenance of the church's Social Media presence?

How will Social Media enhance the experience of church within your church's community?

You may want to pose these questions to your congregation and see if that is something that they would really see as an opportunity.

Personally I see a number of great opportunities and benefits available for the church and its community through the use of Social Media. I would be interested in following this topic and finding out what you decide to do. I think that if you did decide to pursue the use of Social Media that it may provide an interesting model that could be adopted by other church communities that you may have relationships with. I see the possibility of creating an opportunity for your church and its community to extend it's reach and impact much farther than one could ever expect otherwise.