Carol over at Tribal Church is hosting a great conversation on facebook and youth ministry. I’d like to broaden it a bit here. I suppose I can’t quite take for granted that you even know what facebook is, so here’s the mega-quick summary. (If you know what facebook is, skip the next paragraph.)

Facebook is a social-networking site launched in 2004. (Most of the following info is from here.) Facebook now boasts 62 million active users around the world. It originally began as a Harvard College social networking site, and later expanded to all colleges and universities, and is now available to anyone over 13 years of age–so you too can join at http://facebook.com. Folks now use facebook to show information about themselves on their “profile page,” and increasingly, as the major online source to interact with friends. Facebook also hosts applications–add-ons like scrabulous or other games–which increase its capabilities (here for my thoughts on scrabulous.

Ok, back to ministry…Though Columbia Seminary is doing its best to keep up in the web 2.0 age, my classes thus far haven’t considered ministry and facebook. Overall, I think facebook has huge potential for ministry. After all, millions if not most Americans under 30 have accounts, so if the church isn’t working hard on facebook we’re missing an enormous mission field. That said, ministers must be careful in their use of facebook as it presents new and dangerous questions to the profession.

I’m 24 and joined facebook back in its infancy while I was in college. Then, few of my friends were out of their twenties and we treated facebook as an extension to college social life. Now, as I’m facebook friends with my seminary professors and future colleagues in ministry, I treat my profile page quite differently.

For example, one oft-used function of facebook is one’s “current status.” (In fact, my facebook status is also shown in the top right-hand side of my blog.) As I compose my status updates, I must now consider them public information. Back when I only had a few hundred friends, and most were in college, my status might reflect, well, more collegiate activities. Now when members of my congregation read my status regularly, I keep things much more calm.

But to more specific implications for ministry.

1. Accessibility. With cell phones and email, congregation members increasingly expect ministers to be available practically instantly. Facebook only heightens this problem. While work email can be checked only at work, and cell phones can be switched off, facebook pages are always out there ready and waiting for wall posts and messages. Further, though, ministers are stuck using one portal for work and personal life. I hope one day to have separate cell phones–one for work, and one for personal use (or at least one phone that somehow makes that distinction). But having separate facebook pages for work and personal use just doesn’t work. Similarly, parishioners can constantly check your status and check up on you. If your status says, “Adam is reading” they may wonder if you’re reading for fun or work. If you post family photos of your vacation, parishioners will consider you in ways they may not have before. What are the implications of instant and inside access to ministers’ “private” lives?

2. Ease of inappropriate relationships. I have a friend who is currently playing a raucous game of scrabulous with his professor. This game includes playing at all-hours of the day, consistent thoughts about one another, challenges and repeated clever emails to one another, and several bawdy scrabulous plays. The professor–or student–can also access photos of each other, view each other’s status, see what books each is reading, and send each other cute gifts. None of this is inappropriate on the surface, but it presents new possibilities for minds to wander.

You just have to think of “You’ve Got Mail” to remember the ease and allure of online relationships. As someone suggested, should all communication with church members be on one’s public wall rather than through messaging? There goes online interactions in confidence with the minister.

3. Time, time, time. I spend hours on the internet each day–Megan even more. I’m worried that ministers will be expected to be facebook friends with members of their congregation, and how much time these relationships might take.

Before you write-off the ministry possibilities, consider this story from a college chaplain who commend at Tribal Church on ministry and facebook.

Here’s an example. One of my students had “status” statements for 3 days running: Susie Q is sad. Then Susie Q is bummed, and finally Susie Q hates her life. Did I call her? Heck, yes. When I called (on day 2), she said, “I knew you’d call.

So are ministers now expected to check congregation member’s status every few days to make the appropriate pastoral visits?

But there’s also corollaries to my first two points. First, ministers have access to their members in ways like never before. If several members are reading the same book, how about they lead a church book group on it. If someone’s facebook status puts up red flags, what a great early indication of troubles. And sure, inappropriate relationships might be fostered, but so too appropriate ones.

There must be some studies or papers in this area, if not written specifically for minister written consider the caring professions and appropriate online interactions. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Photo by Jacob Bøtter.