Saddle Brook church using social media to reach out to its congregation & community

Pastor Christopher Wolf of First Reformed Church in Saddle Brook is taking his congregation into a new age.

While it's not uncommon to see shops, restaurants and brands with Facebook pages, community churches are now finding a growing number of ways to reach the faithful through social media.

Saddle Brook's First Reformed Church has taken the initiative on connecting with the community through social media.

"We're really trying to put an emphasis on connecting with and serving the community," said Pastor Christopher Wolf. "Present and personal ministry will always be the most effective way to reach people. At the same time, social media is about engaging and connecting with people via the Internet - so we need to be there too."

Buzzplant, a Christian digital advertising agency, conducted surveys in 2012 to see how churches in the United States utilize social media. According to the data published on Mashable, an online news site, nearly half of the approximately 250 churches surveyed said that social media was their most effective method of outreach. The more traditional approach of "knocking on doors" came in second at nearly 25 percent. Sixty-seven percent of churches that blog said they updated their pages about once or twice a week.

First Reformed uses Facebook and Twitter to highlight events and share Bible verses and inspirational quotes, Wolf said. Its YouTube channel has videos of worship services and special events. The YouTube channel allows people to view worship services and "get a peek inside as to what we're about," he said.

"Most churches have a website," said Wolf. "For us, I think what's unique is that we're doing the whole package."

First Reformed Church's website was started two years ago by Saddle Brook resident and member Lynne Van Wyk-Wojcik.

The social media outreach has been gradually building over the past two years. Wolf credits Saddle Brook High School junior and parishioner Thomas Van Winkle with taking the initiative on the web, developing pages, events and posts. The church's Facebook page currently has 182 likes. The church's YouTube channel, firstreformedsb1900, currently has 22 subscribers while the Twitter page only has 16 followers.

"It's no coincidence that a young person from our church has helped to lead us in increasing our Internet presence," Wolf said.

Under the direction of Wolf and the outreach team, Van Winkle manages the church's social media sites and handles the videos of the worship services for the YouTube channel.

"I am proud to be a key part of our efforts to enhance our social media outreach. It's wonderful to see our church's presence on these social media sites. My mission with this social media is to grow our church with new members from around the community," said Van Winkle.

"For us, this is more than just sharing information and images; it's about purposefully engaging and connecting to demonstrate our desire to serve and love others," said Wolf.

"These sites help us share our vision of asking people 'How Can We Pray for You' and enable us to go out to people and say 'We're here for you.' Instead of waiting and hoping for people to show up - which was never the intention of church - in person and via the Internet we are bringing God's love to people in various forms - prayer, connection, service, food, and God's Word," he added.

Wolf added that their social media outreach has had a positive response from the community.

"People are contacting us for prayer and for help with food through the food pantry here," he said. "People are reporting that they feel a part of the congregation by watching the videos of our worship services and we are hearing from residents and community organizations that they recognize us as a resource for the community."

To visit the church's website, go to http://www.firstreformedsaddlebrook.com. 

To like us on Facebook, log in to your account on http://www.facebook.com/ and go to http://www.facebook.com/firstreformedsaddlebrook. 

To follow us on Twitter, log in to your account and go to http://twitter.com/firstreformedsb. 

To subscribe watch our worship services on our YouTube channel, visit http://www.youtube.com/user/firstreformedsb1900. To subscribe, log in with your Google account.