If you have a church and are looking for a method by which you can keep your congregation abreast on news, prayer requests, and schedules, the social networking service, Google+, has some great ways to manage information and filter communications.
If your church staff doesn't already use Gmail or Yahoo Mail, the first thing to do would be to sign up for a free account to either, as a valid email address from one of those services is required. Once this is done, you'll want to connect with members of your congregation. If your church had been using Gmail or Yahoo Mail in the past to communicate with the church body, Google+ will use your established email address book to show you those individuals that already have a profile. For everyone else, you are allowed to invite them to join. You will want to give your congregation notice beforehand that you will be inviting them to follow you on Google+ a couple services before starting the process, and pass around a pen and sign-up sheet so you can gather their email addresses. You may also want to briefly explain the benefits of connecting on such a website by highlighting how it can offer a new way for church members to interact.
After you have set up your profile and invited members of the church to join, you'll want to start organizing folks into circles. Circles on Google+ are groups of people who have something in common to distinguish them apart from others. Certain individuals can be sorted into more than one group. For churches, some ideas on circles you might want to include are for the youth group, Bible studies, the board of trustees, the outreach team, and the general congregation. What these circles allow you to do is filter your profile posts so that only relevant friends can see a given post. Suppose one member is in the youth group and the worship band. By dragging and dropping his profile icon into those circles on your profile, he will receive any news and updates regarding the youth group and worship band, but not be bothered with posts regarding the Bible study.
Google+ also features hangouts. Hangouts are video-chat rooms that allow you to meet with people on a page of simultaneous, live video feeds from all participants. This face-to-face group chat might be a great way for a Bible study to meet, particularly if some members are too far away or have challenged mobility. This also might be a way for prayer groups to share testimonials and ask for support in a community setting while not having to travel to the church or another house. You can also share YouTube videos in hangouts, which might be a great way for foreign missionaries to show you the work they've accomplished, all while maintaining live interaction between participants.
If you would like to get ordained to start an online church, or want to expand the options for your congregation to connect with one another, Google+ has quite a bit to offer. To read more tips on growing your internet ministry, browse the free blog at the Universal Life Church.
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