When one thinks of social media, one thinks of the Internet, Facebook, smartphones, etc. It's important that churches explore the uses of social media to communicate with church members, to reach out to those who don't know Christ as Savior, and to learn from theologians as well as peers.
Many senior adults have not let the Information Age pass them by. According to one study, 53% of American adults age 65 and older use the internet or email. However, many senior adults do not use social media of the Information Age. If we only use email, twitter, and facebook to communicate with our members, we will overlook many senior adults. How should the church communicate with these important members?
Social media did not begin with the Internet. People have been communicating with each other through different methods for centuries. We need to recognize and tap into social media for senior adults. And so, how can we communicate with senior adults on a regular basis?
1. Newsletter
One of the main ways of communicating with senior adults is through a church newsletter. Senior adults still read newspapers and they like to read church newsletters. If you are not publishing a regular newsletter, you may want consider writing one. You can make it fancy by creating the newsletter in Microsoft Publisher or you may want to just type up something in Microsoft Word. A monthly newsletter will be greatly appreciated by the senior adults in your church. Here are some tips on how to create a newsletter.
2. Telephone
Another way that most senior adults communicate is by telephone. Many senior adults call each other daily to check on each other and see if they have any needs. The telephone is their most valuable commnication tool. How can the church use the telephone to keep their members informed? A telephone tree system is a great way to update all members, not just senior adults about special meetings, reminders, prayer requests, announcements. etc. There are several phone tree systems out there for you to check out. The phone tree that we used at my last fulltime church was Calling Post. At that time, we could purchase 1,000 calls for less than $50. Everything can be setup via telephone or computer. We found it to be a very good tool for accurate dissemination of information.
3. Breakfast Meetings
In most every church, there is a group of men who meet for breakfast in a local restaurant nearly everyday. These men talk about anything and everything. I joke with them that they are solving the world's problems. The savvy pastor will become a part of this group of men for fellowship and to communicate church information. We should not neglect face-to-face communication with senior adults.
These are just a few of the ways that a pastor can improve communication with senior adults. I'm sure that you can think of many other ways to communicate with these precious people. Senior adults want to know what is going on in the church. If you're not using the same social media they use, they will miss most of the information you are trying to share with the church.
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