Egere, Inaku K.

Social Media and Mission-Based Marketing

Approach for New Evangelization in the
Digital Age

Abstract

It is without ‫ﺀﺀ»ﻣﻤﺢ‬that globalization of markets has affected humanity’s

relationship with the supernatural. Today, secularism threatens ‫؛‬٠ obliterate
anyform of belief and faith in God. In most cases, secularism promotes a
type ofreligion that is steeped in human concerns and bereft ofthe ‫ﻣﺢ‬،'‫ا‬،'»‫ﺀ‬
dimension. These religiousparidigms callfor a review ofthe Church’s strategies
onevangelization,particularlyhowtodelivertheGospelmessageincontemporary
digital culture. This article, therefore, proposes for mission-based marketing
approach to evangelization as a panacea. This is a business philosophy, ‫ ه‬way
of thinking, an orientation to an institution’s total activities that can help the
Church ‫؛‬٠ make concrete ‫د‬ about engaging the social media ‫؛‬٠ better
realize its mission ofevangelization in the digital age.

Inaku K. Egere, Ph.D is a Lecturer in the Department o f Communication Studies,

Centre for Africa Culture and Communication, Catholic Institute ،>/ West Africa, Port
Harcourt, Nigeria. Hispostal ‫ﺳﻬﻢ‬ is: p.c. Box 499, CIWA PortHarcourt, Nigeria.
Email ^^‫؟‬٢ : inakuegere@vahoo.com
 Social Media and Mission-Based Marketing Approachfor New Evangelization ... 187
Introduction

OCIAL communication media influence a great part of the

human daily life today. It ha$ become almost entirely
impossible to go through a single day without attending to our
needs for and through the media. There are a number of reasons for
this upsurge in the use of the social media networks. These include
the natural human desire for education, search for valuable
information, entertainment and and the ever-present desire to escape
from or cope with the vicissitudes of the daily life, as well as spirittral
and religious dilemmas. The unassuming capacity of the media to
reach a wide spectrum of audiences both synchronously and
asynchronously underlines its latent power and importance in our
“global village.” The social media has become like a market square
where users constantly interact with one another and exchange ideas.
This explains why advertisers invest a lot of money daily to market
their goods and services through the new media. They do this by
simulating customer-friendly images ofproducts and services in ideal
conditions for companies or clients.
Ever since the establishment of the propagandafide curia in 1622
and subsequent LoservatoreRomano ( l‫ ‘؟‬July 1861) and Radio Vaticano
(12th February 1931), the Church has made tremendous progress in
the use of traditional mass media for evangelization. Subsequently,
with the advent of the digital technology in the 1990s the Church
has embraced, albeit cautiously, the new media. Through
advertisement, the business world takes advantage of the new media
to reach out to clients or potential clients even in the most private
of places as their bedrooms. Thus the new technology has become a
platform for advertising and selling products with just a few clicks
on an internet-enabled device. This paradigm shift in business has
equally caused a corresponding shift in marketing strategies. Similarly,
effective evangelization in foe “New religious panorama requires a
mission-based marketing approach.”1
’ Babin, p.‫ ه‬Zukowski, A. The Gospel in Cyberspace: NurturingFaith in the Internet Age,
Chicago: Loyola Pre$s, 2061, p. 147.
188 African Ecclésial Review, Vol. 57, Nos. 3&4, 2015
The world ٠٢ marketing in business has many similarities with
evangelizat^n in the context of the Church. A proper examination
of the modem changes in business marketing can teach us ways in
which the Church can also invigorate its evangelization strategies
and activities today The caveat is that in the same way that many
people conduct business online without stepping out of their homes,
some may be tempted to believe that they can be holy and spirimal
without physically attending Church; that they cam simply follow
their own conscience and develop their “personal faith” in a way
that is uniquely their own.^ It is, therefore, important to note that,
along with the rise of new media technologies, New Age spiritualties,
faith syncretism and similar trends have brought with them new
realities that the Church must respond to by rethinking how foe faith
of those christened and confirmed can be nurtured in new contexts
and also how to better reach out to foose who are yet to receive foe
Christian faith.^ In foe light of these new realities, this article
examines how foe social media as a channel and marketing as an
approach can inform some Church-based communication structures
in evangelization.

Spectre of social media within thepurview of evangelization and marketing

There is a lot of confusion among scholars and high ecclesiastics

alike on foe meaning of the term ‫ﻫﺊﺀﻣﻚ‬/ media. Some generally
associate it wifo all types of User Generated Content or Web 2.0.
The confirsion often stems from foe fact that majority of foe media
users do not have time to study foe media before applying it. Social
media is generally a product of new media technology built wifo foe
logic of extremely interactive platforms where users congregate,
interact, share, create and/or exchange information, news, beliefs,
2 Cf.Wuthnow,R. ChristianityintheTwenty-FirstCentury,London:‫ ﻣﺤﻢ‬0 ‫ س‬University
?ress, 1998,p. 5.
3 Cf. Babin, ?.‫ ه‬z^ow ski, ٨ . The Gospel in Cyberspace: NurturingFaith in the Internet
Age, p. 147.
 Social Media and Mission-Based Marketing Approachfor New Evangelization. . ■ 189
values, faith, personal life stories and experienees, etc., through texts,
photos, sounds and videos. For Kaplan and Haenlein, it is a group of
internet-based applications that build on the ideological and
technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the Creadon
and exchange of User Generated Content (UGC).4
In summary, social media are “Gnline communications that
use special techn^ues that involve participation, conversation,
sharing, collaboration, and linkage.”‫ ؟‬The most popular among them
are Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, Google Groups and Twitter. These are
microblogs in which people are able to link up with close and distant
friends, relations, colleagues among others from their social networks
and communities. The technology enables users to share pictures,
videos and texts. Through social media, information and knowledge
is shared among millions of people at very minimal cost and within
a very short time. Facebook, for instance, is continually gaining
accelerated popularity among people both young and old. In 2009,
Facebook had more than 300 million users. By May 2015, Facebook
already had about 1.49 billion users comprising 1.31 billion mobile
users, more than 50 million pages and about 11 million applications.
Gn the other hand, Twitter, foe tenth largest social media network,
had over 500 million users with 316 million monthly active accounts
of which 80 percent were active users on mobile.6 Social media
enables people to post pictures and make comments that are seen
and read by many across foe world.
As Ihiejirika explains concerning Facebook·.
It is a digital photo album like foe traditional photo album
which we normally show to friends when they visit us.
Now my friends and relations do not need to physically

٠ Cf. Kaplan, A.M .‫ ه‬Haenlein, M. “User of ،Ire World, Unite! The Challenges and
Cpportunities of Soeial Media,” Business Horizens, 53,2010, pp. 59-68.
5 Dominick, R.J. ThyDynamics of Mass Communication, Media in Transition (11thEd.),
N Y o * :M c G ra ^ ll,2 0 1 1 ,p .2 5 .
٠ Cf· “Sta،ics ?or،al,” http://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-
monthlv-active-facebook-users-worldwide/■Accessed 30/08/2015.
90 ‫ا‬ African‫ﺀﺀﺀ‬/‫ﺀﺀ‬،‫'ه‬/ Review, Vol. 57, Nos. 3&4, 2015
visit me before they can view my latest picmres — they
can do so by registering on Facebook.7

The concept of “Social media can be traced back to Bruce and

Susan Abelson’s,” “Open Diary,” an early social networking site
that brought together online diary writers into one community
The term “weblog” was first used at the same time and truncated
as “blog” a year later when one blogger jokingly transformed the
noun “weblog” imo “we blog.” Therefore, the invention of high-
speed internet devices and its corresponding access to users led
also to the creation of social networking sites like 2003) ‫ ﻫﻤﻜﺠﻢ‬،:‫)ﺀ‬,
Facebook (2004) and Twitter (2006).
There are different types of social media channels that offer
different feaftrres such as social bookmarking, forums, microblogging,
social networking and social curation. However, the mainstream
social media platforms that can be more effective for evangelization
are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Litikedln and Pinterest. Heedless to
say, effective application of these media for evangelization demands
a proper understanding of the technical operators of the social
networks and the mindset of social media. Social media, like any
other form of new media, brings together three main elements:
Technological artifacts and devices; activities, practices and uses,
and social arrangements and organizations that form around foe
devices and practices.8
Significantly, with social media there is a shift in media logic,
which demonstrates a certain level of novelty, innovation and
dynamism. This signification is what may have prompted McQuail
to state that foe “Hew electronic media, can be viewed initially as
tin addition to foe existing spectrum rather than as a replacement.”9

7 Ihiejirika, w. The e-PHest: The Identity of the Catholic Priest in the Digital Age, Owerri:
Edu-Edy Publications, 2011, p. 84.
8 Cf. Lievr^w, L.A .‫ ه‬Livings^ne, s. The Handbook of New Media, ‫آ‬,‫ ﺗﺴﺴﻪ‬Sag€,
2006, p. 23.
‫ و‬McquaiL, D. McQuaiVs Mass Communication Theory (5th Ed.), Lond©n: SAGE
?ubli€ati©ns, 2005, p. 138.
 Social Media and Mission-Based Marketing Approachfor New Evangelization. . . 191
In McQuail’$ position, new media are products ٠‫ ؛‬a continuous
hybridization 01 both existing technologies and innovations in
interconnected technical and institutional networks. The panic of
this paradigm shift is only but a natural reaction to change. As
Marvin observes:
We are not the first generation to wonder at tire rapid and
extraordinary shifts in the dimensions of the world and
human relationships it contains as a result of new forms
of communication.10

?rogressively, the digital world is saturated with information and

digital devices. More people across tire globe now have access to
cell‫ ﻃﻢ‬0‫ ﺀﻋﻪ‬and other internet-enabled derices. In fact, the mobile
internet access in itself is a rich platform for instant connection,
conversation and interaction. As such, social media platforms such
as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube with their customized layouts are
convenient for viral connectivity.
Evangelization is foe core business of foe Church. The Church
is also foe risible fruit of evangelization. Therefore, foe Church is
mandated to pass foe message ٠٢ foe Kingdom of God to others
through the media that is most accessible to them. Jesus
demonstrated this by evangelizing through a language that was
accessible to His target fodiriduals and communities. He converted
people wherever they were, in foe synagogues, foe market places
and in foe crowds. Today majority of foe crowds are on social media.
This means that social media are great channels for sharing foe Good
Hews of foe Kingdom of God both at intra and ad extra levels.
Social media opens up new social layers that give foe Church a mode
in which to test, modify and generally expand foe understanding
and acceptance of foe Christian faith ‫ ط‬foe changing world. Because
of foe “interactive profiles” of these new media and as products of
mass revolution, communication has been made quite effective and
‫؛‬٠Marvin, c. ١ ٠ « Old Technologies WereNew: Thinking about Electric Communication in
the Late Nineteenth‫ﺀ‬،،‫׳ رﺑﻤﺎ‬, New Yerk: Oxford University ?ress, 3 ‫ل‬988
. , ‫ﺀ‬.
192 African Ecclésial Review, Vol. 57, Nos. 3& 4,2015
affordable. The Church, therefore, “Sees these media as ‘gifts of
Cod’ which, in accordance with Ids providential design, unite men
in brotherhood and so help them to cooperate with his plan of
salvation.”‫ ؛؛‬This vision of foe Church calls for urgent application
of the social media stratagem in foe evangelization vista.
The purview of marketing is not exclusive to foe world of
business. It is possible to imbibe foe marketing strategies in business
in foe work of evangelization. In business, marketing is a process
that involves planning and executing foe conception, pricing,
promotion and distribution of ideas, goods and services to clients.
In some way, foe Church is also involved ‫ ط‬marketing foe Good
News through foe mass media and other forms of communication.
Therefore, mission-based marketing may be foe next best strategy
for foe Church to engage in more effective evangelization. Indeed,
foe new methods advocated for by Evangelii Nuntiandi may be
adapted to “mission-based marketing.” This kind of adaptation
enables foe Church to design strategies for understanding and filltilling
foe spiritual needs of diverse groups of seekers and ensuring that
those needs are met and embraced in a meaningfiil covenant.12

Mission-based marketing approach: A social media typology

Marketing is often associated with foose vices relating to wanting

and giving of materiell goods and foe resultant guilt over foe desire
for them.13In spite of fois, marketing as an activity of winning people
to engage in given activities can teach foe Church to look for better
ways to package foe Gospel in foe new digital age. The globalization
of markets and advances in technology has directly or indirectly

11 ?Gntifical CGmmission for Social Cmmunication, ?astoral Instruction on the

Means of Social Communication Communio et Progression Vaticano: Libratrice
Vaticano, I97I, no. 2.

. ‫ﻣﻢﺀس‬
12 Cf Babin, p.‫ ه‬Zukowski, A. The Gospelin Cyberspace:NurturingFaith in thelntemet
 Social Media and Mission-Based Marketing Approachfor New Evangelization. . . 93 ‫ل‬
affected the religicu$ fervour of many. With the new media
technology, new form$ of Christianity have also emerged that tend
to compromise the Cospel of Christ in pursuit of economic, political
and socio-cultural agenda. These religious narratives also indicate a
need to revise the Church’s strategies of evangelization. The Church
must, therefore, seek new ways to re-package and deliver the
unchanging message of Cod’s love and plans for humanity within
the contemporary culture.
The mission-based marketing approach helps to communicate
and persuade people on tire importance ofreligious experience within
their daily living engagements. It demonstrates the value of religion
‫ ط‬human life and tire beneficial consequences of active involvement
hr the Good News and the Church. The marketing approach begins
by asking questions such as: Who are my audience? Where are they?
What is their spiritual quest? What are their needs? How can the
Good News be packaged in ways that are relevant but rooted in
fradition? What langage, psychological approaches and techniques
can assist in the evangelization efforts?’^By answering these questions
within its evangelization strategies, tire Church representatives and
workers will remain true to the message of Christ as they embrace
new languages, new techniques and new attiftrdes by adapting the
traditional approaches to the marketing strategies of the New Media
technology that cuts across the firll breadth and depth of the new
world. Failure to adjust and reposition evangelization initiatives and
methods will make tire Church guilty for not reaching out to many
who need the Lord.‫؟؛‬

Social media and pastoral ministry

Fope Benedict XVI’s 2010 message on World Communication Day
on the New Information and Communication Technologies, under
14 Cf. Babin, p.‫ ه‬Zukowski, A. The Gospelin Cyberspace:NurturingFaith in thelntemet
Ageyp. 150.
15 Cf. Pepe Paui VI, Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nutiandi, Rome: Vatican Press,
1975, no. 45.
94 ‫ا‬ African Ecclésial Review, Vol. 57, Nos. 3 & 4,2015
the theme The Priest and Pasto™¡ Ministry in ‫ ه‬Digital World: New
Media ‫ ﺀه‬the Service ٠/ the Word, is very informative, especially for
those Church representatives who still see the digital technology as
a “crime” to humanity. The pontiff urges priests and the laity to:
Consider tire new media as a powerftti resource for their
ministry in the service of tire Word . . . ?riests are thus
challenged to proclaim the Gospel by employing tire latest
generation of audiovisual resources (images, videos,
animated features, blogs, websites) which, alongside
traditional means, can open up broad new vistas for
dialogue.- evangelization and catechesis.*e

?riests can use the social media to get connected with so many
parishioners and friends from across tire globe by simply opening
Facebook or Twitter accounts under tire parish or diocesan name. In
such media avenues short daily reflections, picttrres of holy symbols,
daily readings, catechesis and even online retreats, upcoming events,
bams, Easter/Christmas messages, notices, etc. can be shared. Such
sharing will undoubtedly help to unite the people of God and also
nurture and increase their fitith in God that is borne out of a sense
of fellowship.
Since &e world h ^ e c o n r e b ^ ie r .^ ^ o p le wish to receive
spiritoal nourishment through social media as they engage in their
daily chores. Alluding to this spiritual desire, ?ope Benedict XVI, in
his address to tire Roman Curia hr 2009, says:
Social Media is all about relationships, community and
comem. There is a collective hunger om there that cannot
be satisfied. Too many people are focused on picking up
the crumbs under the table. The Church has a great

'٠ Benedict XVTs, Message ٠٠ World Communication Day ٥٠the New Information
and Communication Technologies with the Theme, “The ?riest am! Pastoral
Ministry in a Digital World: New Media at the Service of the Word,” 2010, p. 1,
http://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/messages/communications.index.html
Accessed 18/07/2015.
 Social Media and Mission-Based Marketing Approachfor New Evangelization. . . 195
opportunity here “to bring a $oui to the fabric of
communication that make$ up the Web” and to whisper
that God is near; that in Christ we ah belong to one another.’’

The pontiff farther urges the Church thus:

You must find ways to spread -in a new manner - voices
and pictures of hope, tirrough tire internet, which wraps
our entire planet in an increasingly close-knitted way ‫ة؛‬

?riests or parishes can also have their own Facebook, Twitter and
YouTube accounts where they can attend to the needs of individuals
within this e-generation. Moreover, imminent events, spiritual
materials, sermons, homilies, recorded Mass, religious music, concerts
and short rehgious dramatic pieces can be uploaded to tire social media
sites to enable people to share and participate in the word of God.

Key social media strategy for effective evangelization

Effective evangelization hr an e-age demands the use o f

A wide range of technologies that facilitates both
human communication and the interactive sharing of
information through computer networks, including e-mail,
discussion groups, newsgroups, chat, instant message, and
Web pages.19

17Benedict XVI Address to the Roman Curia. December21.2009.http://w2.vatican.va/

content/benedict-xvi/en/speeches/2009/december/documents/hfben-
xvi spe 20091221 curia-aufuri.html■Accessed21/07/2015.
18 Pope Benedict XVI, www.voutube.com/user/vatican:www.vatican.va. Accessed 02/
07/2015.
•٠Barbes, S.B. Computer-mediatedCommunication:HumantoHumanCommunicationAcross
the Internet, Boston, MA: Allyn and Becon, 2003, p. 4.
96 ‫ ل‬African Ecclésial Review, Vol. 57, Nos. 3& 4,2015
The applicatif of $ocial media as ‫ ﻋﻪ‬approach to evangelization
must he based on a clear strategy. This approach should involve the
three Ms of social media strategy, namely Monitor, Mix and Measure.

St e p L M onttor

This stage involves listening, reading and watching of online ‫ئ؛ ﻣﻤﻀﻤﻢ‬.
It entails gening acquainted with the social media content such as
tweets, Facebook updates, Church blogs among others. At this stage
the use of search engines and Coogle Alerts to monitor comments
on faith related issues provides usefid tips on social media apostolate.
For an in-depth social media monitoring, paid services like Radians
and Scoutlabs can be efficient. Moreover, free monitoring tools like
Topy, Twazzup, HootSuite, /‫ ﺀسﺀﺀ؛‬, Broardtracker and TweetDeck can
also be used.

S te? 11:‫« ﻳﺎ‬

logic of social media is based on interactions that result in

relationships and online conversations with others. 1‫ ﻋﺄ‬more
interactive an online conversation is the more viral its message
becomes. Effective pastoral ministry through social media requires
constant replies to posts and tweets. Obviation of frequent posts
and updates may make an online presence go stale which ٥١^^ not
generate the desired results. In fact, for Kenneth Lillard, sending
inspirational sermons, praise and worship and youth ministry events
and replies online to friends and followers is of essence.“ Staying
connected and mingling with tire online communities is an important
recipe for social media evangelization.

S te? Ill: M easure

The last step is like a litmus test. It involves an evaluation of the

effectiveness of tire social media employed in evangelization. This

^٠Cf. Lillard, K. Social Media and Ministry: Sharing the Gospel in the digital ¿ge,
Portsmouth, VA: CPSfA, 2010, pp. 24-25.
 ‫ﻣﺢﺀﻣﻤﻤﻢ'ﺳﻚ‬،‫ 'ه‬and Mission-Based Marketing Approachfor New Evangelization. . . 197
evaluation is done using pre-established performance measures. After
mingling with the online community, the next step is to evaluate
how many users are connected to your social media platform and
measure how foe updates are making a positive impact in their belief
systems. Qualitative and quantitative evaluation is important in
gauging foe effectiveness of a social media evangelization strategy.
Tools such as Google Alerts, Twitter Search or Google Analytics
can be usefal to track foe metrics of specific keywords, topics or
phrases and sentences in measuring foe social media impact on
evangelization. The units of analysis in such an evaluation would
include foe number of page views, unique visitors, new members
after a designated period of time, posts, updates, comments, link
backs/track backs, social media mentions, new groups, networks and
forums established, new users/friends, catechetical, doctrinal and
dogmatic issues resolved among others.*‫ ؛‬Tor better results, multiple
metrics can be utilized to give a more credible assessment of foe
social media srtategy performance.

Practical application ofsocial media in evangelization: A Twitter typology

Microblogs like Twitter axe very efficient in communicating with
people around foe globe. In a recent interview I conducted among
Cathohc Youth Organization of Nigeria (CYON), Ogoja Diocese, it
emerged that about 86% of those interviewed had Twitter handles.
In June 2015,Icarried out another research among those who worship
at Our Lady of foe Holy Rosary Chaplaincy, Cathohc Institute of
West Africa. It equally emerged that 62% of foe respondents tweeted
daily, ?aul Hope Cheong, after monitoring foe Alexa traffic rankings
for three months in 2011, concludes that “Twitter is foe ninfo most
popular site in foe world, visited by slightly more than 11 percent of
the world’sglobal interest users.”22Since its emergence ‫ ط‬2006 ‫ﻣﻚ؛س‬
21 Cf. Lillard, ¥L.SoáalMediaandMinistry:SharingtheGospelinthe DigitalAge, pp. 89-90.
22 Cheong, ?.H., Fischer-Nielsen, F. Gelfgren, s. and £ss, c. Digital Religion, Social
Media and Culture: Perspectives, Practices and Futures, New York: FETER LANG,
2012,p. 191.
98 ‫ ل‬African Ecclésial Review, Vol. 57, Nos. 3& 4,2015
has become a real-time information network that connects people
to current stories, comments, opinions and news around foe world in
foe fastest, simplest way In it one finds small bursts of information
referred to as tweets. By definition:
Tweets are lim ited to 140 characters, but the
communicative potentiell can be extended via foe usage
of URT-shortening services, such as bit.ly, and comem-
hosting services, such as Twiptpic and Twitvid, to
accommodate multimedia content and longer texts.”

Twitter is used daily by different people for a variety of purposes

because of its viral dissemination capacity Like any other web-based
application, many religious leaders see it as a spiritual network, an
“important way station” on humanity’s journey towards a greater
spiritual evolution.“ Cobb believes that through foe cyber network:
The divine expresses itself in foe digital terrain through
foe vast global computer networks that are now beginning
to display rudimentary self organizing properties . . . [I]f
we can allow ourselves to understand foe deeper, sacred
mechanisms of cyberspace we can begin to experience it
as a medium for grace.”

In building foe faith of foe “followers” through tweets, users are

re^rlarly encouraged to engage in religious practices like prayers,
Scripture readings and posting of short sermons, homilies among
others. Some even set up feeds on Twitter that feature daily
updates, prayer requests, hymns, bible passages, devotional songs
and recommendations. Daily updates can help to develop ambient

” Chong, P.H., Fischer-Nielsen, p. Getfgren, s. and Ess, c. Digital Religion, Social

Media and Culture: Perspectives, Practices andFutures, p . 2 ‫ول‬.
24 Cf. Cnbb, J.J. Cyber Grace: The Searchfor God in the Digital World, New York: Crown,
1998,p. 97.
25 Ibid., pp. 42-43.
 Social Media and Mission-Based Marketing Approachfar New Evangelization. . ■ 199
intimacy (i.e. enveioping social awareness) within one’s social·
network as it contributes to a deeper religious consciousness of faith
among users. It can be used as a form of “lifelogging” as interactants
self-disclose their lived moments.“
Indeed, microblogging is mostly used by evangelical Christian
groups to strengthen their religious communities through
synchronized prayer. In some cases faith related hashtags such as
#prayer, #JIL (Jesus is Lord), #twurch and #pryer4 are used to
strengthen groups daily as users sign up to receive hourly prayers
sent in verses or different themes to encourage prayers and even
provide scripture rea،lings or passages to meditate on. In this way
social media interactants:
^invent the century-old practice of praying set prayers
from the Bible, hymns, and devotionals. They can match
prayer rhythms with fellow believers at designated rimes
of the day.”

Very much related to this is the religious practice of “prayer chains,”

in which believers are charged to pray for particular persons, causes
or topics during set hours. In addition, churches can also tweet in:
Quick updates, drive traffic to websites and remind people
of pvents more efficiently than ever . . . [it] is a free and
simple way to connect churches to the cell phones of
their congregants, volunteers and staff.28

Coppedge ftrrther comends that Twitter in Churches can be used

primarily as a “megaphone” for updates and announcements or as a
conversation platform to spur the sharing of ideas and prayer
‫؛‬٠Cf. Jackson M.H. “The Mash-up: A New Archetype for Communication,” Journal
qfComputer-MediatedCommunication, 14 (3), 2009, pp. 730-734.
27Cheong, ?.H., Fiseher-Nielsen, p., Gelfgren s.‫ ه‬£ss, c. Digital Religion, Socio¡
Media and Culture: Perspectives, Practices and Futures, p. 198.
” Coppedge, A. “The Reason Your Church Must Twitter,” http://www.twitter
forchurches.com/■Accessed 05/08/2015.
200 African Ecclésial Review, Vol. 57, Nos. 3 & 4,2015______________________________
exchange, il‫؛‬u$trating the pntential of Twitter in building deeper
relationships among its congregants.*‫ ؟‬Such uses of Twitterdxt mostly
found among £vangelicals. However, for the institutional churches,
Pauline Hope Cheong observes:
Tweeting religious texts is posited to affirm religious
community-building, yet particular outcomes depend on
if and how these tweets are integrated into the fabric of
religious bodies. For instance, a number of churches have
incorporated Twitter during their services, where
congregational members' tweets may appear as scrolling
virtual messages on sanctuary screens. In other churches,
tweets are used primarily by leaders to strengthen
affiliations and to convert the weah ries that some seekers
have developed online to real-life interpersonal
attachments, specifically church attendance and
participation. For example, in several organizations,
religious leaders have urged readers who are inspired by
their tweets to listen to their sermons online, to attend
church events, and to visit their churches.30

As mentioned above, the Evangelicals spirimally nourish and convert

many people through microblogging. In America, the founder of
one of the largest and fast growing churches, Pastor Rick Warren, in
addition to his books, television and radio platforms for
evangelization, tweets hundreds of thousands of followers daily The
self-proclaimed “technology evangelist” microblogs regularly. He has
been able to reach out to more people by sending several tweets
daily on a wide range of religious issues and topics. His ttveets include
inspiring or enriching sayings, advertisements of his speaking
engagements, prayer bids, commendations of the publications he
has read andn‫؛‬minders on Church events. As P.H. Cheong et al. observe:

29 Cf. Coppedge, A. “The Reason Your Church Must Twitter,” p. 11.

Cheong, ?.H., Fischer-Nielsen F., Gelfgren s . ‫ ه‬Ess, c. Digital Religion, Social
Media and Culture: Perspectives, Practices and Futures, p. 199.
 Social Media andMission-BasedMarketingApproachfbrNewEvangelization. . . 201
Recently, some of his tweets have been composed in a
variety of languages (such as Spanish, Chinese, Korean,
and Arabic) and addressed to pastors in his worldwide
network of pastor mentees in 195 countries (called the
p u jóse Driven ?astors Network). Several of his tweets
can also be considered faith memes as they are catchy,
provocative phrases that have been quickly circulated and
retweeted.3‫؛‬

Similarly, ?ope Francis, like his predecessor ?ope Benedict XVI,

tweets daily and has hundreds of thousands of followers he directly
nourishes with the Word of Cod.

Imaging thefuture and the Catholic response

The use of social media platform in the expression of faith has in

many circles raised questions on the efficacy and authenticity of
religious actions mediated through it. One dominant factor is that
religious leaders use the technology to proclaim and express their
faith and belief systems. The question of authenticity, however, depends
on the type of religious practice. The most common activities of the
Church in social media are: ?rayers, doctrines, sermons, homilies and
‫ د‬. Social media, like any other digital media, are “gifts from God
which, in accordance with His providential design, unite men in
brotherhood and so help them to cooperate with His plan for their
salvation.”“ With this understanding the response of the Cathohc
Church to the use of social media affirms “The willingness to adopt
media that can serve church needs and support its strucftrres.”“ Heidi

S1 Cheong, ?.H., Fischer-Nielsen p., Gelfgren s. ‫ ﺀ‬Ess, c. Digital Religion, ‫رﺀﻣﻚ‬ '‫ ه‬/
Media and Culture: Perspectives, Practices and Futures, pp. 198-200.
“ Fontifical Commission for Social Communication, Pastoral Instruction on the
Means of Social Communication Communio etPreogressio, no. 11.
“ Campbell, H. Digital Religan: Understanding Religious Practice in New Media Worlds,
New York: Routledge, 2012, p. 81.
202 African Ecclésial Review, Vol. 57, Nos. 3 & 4 ,2015
Campbell observes that the Catholic Church was the first religious
institution to embrace the internet and create a website which
eventoally crashed soon after it was launched because of heavy traffic.
Subsequently the Church needs to develop an official policy regarding
internet use for members of its community
To build and nourish the Cyber-Body-of-Christ, ?opes
Benedict XVI and Francis, in addition to using other new media
devices, began using Twitter. Their tweets encourage and inspire theft
followers concerning the Word of Cod. The use of sacred text apps,
prayer apps and ritual apps is allowed for the expression of one’s
belief However, the nurftjring of the Cyber-Body-of-Christ through
the sacraments via microblogging is prohibited. Vatican recently
cautioned against the use of “Confession: A Roman Catholic App”
approved by Bishop Kevin c. Rhoades of the Catholic Diocese of
Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana United States of America. Federico
Lombardi, the Vatican Spokesperson, emphatically condemned the
use of such apps saying:
The sacrament of penitence requires the personal dialogue
between the penitent and tire confessor and the absolution
by the confessor. . . this cannot in any way be substituted
by a technology application.^

Conclusion

Social media have become very effective means of communication

in our e-world. Business owners exploit these great digital avenues in
theft marketing strategies on a daily basis. In the same way, mission-
based marketing approach through social media offers tire Church
an enormous opportunity to enhance its evangelization strategies in
this digital age. Although tire concept of marketing evokes attitudes

*٠Messia, H. ‫ ﺀ‬Gilgoff, ‫ ه‬, “Vatican Issues Wanting for New Confession App,”
http://religion.blogs.c11n.com/2011/02/09/vatican-issues-waming-for-new-confession-
app/■ Accessed 01/09/2015.
 Social Media and Mission-Based Marketing Approachfor New Evangelization. . . 203
of commercialization, it must be understood that it is never an end
in itself. Rather, it is a tool; and as a tool, it ean he adapted to many
uses. Therefore, mission-based marketing is a process that enables
the Church to come up with concrete strategies to expand its capacity
to better realize its mission of evangelization in the digital age.
Mission-based marketing is thus a philosophy, a manner of thinking,
an orientation or theoretical approach to foe total activities of
evangelization. Still, foe starting point for mission is where foe people
are, and foe alleyway to change is ‫ ط‬making available what foe people
feel to be their urgent and basic need.
Effective evangelization in the new religious panorama,
therefore, requires a reorientation of Church programmes and
messages with foe people’s status quo in order to elicit positive
response. It calls for a systematic study of the needs, wants,
perceptions, preferences as well as satisfaction of foe needs of foe
people befog targeted for evangelization and spirimal nourishment.
The dynamic nature of foe human foe and foe environment makes
it necessary that foe Church customizes its specific products ٠٢
services to the present trends, thought patterns and needs by
“packaging” foe message in a modem global langage of the digital
media while remaining faithfirl to its doctrine.^ ‫ﺀ‬

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 ‫آلﻣﺂورلم؛‬

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