The Facebook phenomenon has begun to (finally) find its way into the Canadian Presbyterian community. This means that Presbyterians from across the country have begun to experience the fellowship opportunities that social networking sites like Facebook offer.
There are currently at least 25 close to 50 groups on Facebook related to the Canadian Presbyterian community – and I’m sure there are many I haven’t found. Here are just a few:
- The Presbyterian Church in Canada (unofficial)
- Canada Youth 2009
- Knox College
- Knox, Waterloo
- PCC Webmasters
- Valleyview, Calgary
- National Presbyterian Museum
- The Elders’ Institute
- CNOB PYPS
- St. Andrew’s, Ottawa
- Friends of St. Andrew’s, Stirling
- Trintity-Oro
- Camp D’Action Biblique
If you don’t spend much time on Facebook, you might think that we must have had an explosion of university students in The PCC. As much as we would welcome such a blessing, the demographics of Facebook now are much different than they were just eighteen months ago and conventional wisdom hasn’t yet caught up. In fact, most Canadian adults on Facebook are over 25.
What is even more surprising is the sheer number of Canadians that spend some of their time connecting with friends and family on Facebook. About 11 million Canadians now have Facebook accounts – that represents well over a third of Canadian adults. Using demographic information extracted from Facebook’s advertising system, I was able to determine the size of each age group on Facebook for Canada. The results are:
|
Age Range |
Number |
Percent |
| 13-17 |
1,553,300 |
14.00 |
| 18-25 |
4,004,200 |
36.10 |
| 26-35 |
2,906,640 |
26.20 |
| 36-45 |
1,421,520 |
12.81 |
| 46-55 |
691,760 |
6.24 |
| 56-65 |
372,940 |
3.36 |
| 65+ |
142,320 |
1.28 |
| Total |
11,092,680 |
While it’s clear that the university crowd is the largest single age group on Facebook, Canadians over the age of 25 represent about half of the entire Canadian Facebook population. To me, these numbers represent a huge ministry opportunity for The Presbyterian Church in Canada.
What do you think? In what ways could we, as a denomination, reach out to the Presbyterian community that already exists on Facebook?
In February, I’ll be speaking at an unconference called PodCampToronto where I’ll be leading a discussion called “First Church of Facebook: an Exploration of Faith and Social Media.” We’ll be talking about the ways that Canada’s faith community are (or could be) using social media (like Facebook) to engage and minister to their constituents. If you have a story about how social media played a part in ministry, please share it with me either in the comments below or by email: ccarmichael@presbyterian.ca.
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January 14th, 2009 on 9:43 am
Great post Colin!
As I said on Twitter ( http://twitter.com/zoic/status/1118294217 ), I’m starting to have hope about this Presbyterian Thing…
I know that CAIRN has a bunch of Facebook Pages, official and ad hoc so I thought it might be good to keep working on your list.
I’m going to post these here and in the comments on PCC Webmasters group on FB in hopes that we can try to gather up a list of as many Canadian Presbyterian Facebook Groups as possible.
CAIRN Page (needs some love): http://bit.ly/XqDY
CAIRN Groups:
Glen Mhorians: http://bit.ly/2Mo2
Cairn: http://bit.ly/U8Kd
CAIRN (Glen Mhor & Iona) Alumni: http://bit.ly/1Z8tb2
Yes, We Survived Iona in Bala (unofficial) http://bit.ly/VE1a
Kintail Groups:
CAMP KINTAIL (unofficial) http://bit.ly/Srdc
KINTAIL LOVERS (unofficial) http://bit.ly/zOac
January 14th, 2009 on 11:31 am
Hi:
Here is another facebook group for Canadian Presbyterians started by universty students.
Canadian Presbyterians for Revival C. P. R.
Glen
January 14th, 2009 on 11:57 am
Travis: Your list is a good example of the work to be done with “profile optimization”. I simply searched FB for “presbyterian canada” and none of those came up because they don’t contain the word Presbyterian anywhere! Something to think about. (I know those aren’t all yours, btw)
I’m thinking that I’ll have to create a resource list somewhere on Presbyterian.ca that links to all of the Presbyterian Facebook groups and pages…
January 15th, 2009 on 8:53 am
I’ve created a list of known PCC Facebook groups at presbyterian.ca:
http://www.presbyterian.ca/communications/facebook
January 21st, 2009 on 6:00 pm
Very interesting.
I had a conversation this morning (at a Week of Prayer for Xian Unity event) with a woman who said, “Aren’t computers and email and all that awful! They’re terrible for the church because nobody gets together in person anymore.”
I disagreed with her comment and explained that my ministry with youth and young adults is deeply enhanced by the use of email, facebook, the church website, and even text messaging. I am able to stay in touch with the youth of my church, be aware of the things that are going on in their lives, and connect with their world through the internet.
I don’t think it reduces their attendance at in-person programs or worship. In fact, if someone doesn’t show up to youth group, they regularly get a text message from one of the other youth asking, “Hey, where are you? We wish you were here.”
The facebook Christian community can never replace the church being together for worship, service, and fellowship, but it can enhance it. I haven’t thought about facebook as a “reaching out” tool, but it’s certainly a re-connecting tool and a strengthening connections tool.
Personally, I enjoy using facebook to keep up connections with Presbyterian friends and colleagues in other parts of the country. It can be a community of support, encouragement, and idea-sharing that simply wouldn’t happen across our great distances without the internet.
I’ll check all my “presbyterian-related” facebook groups and send you a list. We have one for our congregation (St. Andrew’s, Saskatoon), plus Camp Christopher, Gracefield, and a few others.
Looking forward to hearing more of your reflections on the facebook Presbyterian community.
January 22nd, 2009 on 7:51 am
Antoher group on Facebook is “Friends of St. Luke’s Presbyterian Church”. T. Lukes is located in Bathurst, NB.
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=23957422052
January 23rd, 2009 on 11:35 am
@ccarmichael have updated most of our links to include Presbyterian and Canada – should have thought of that…
Tks for the tip.