Great ideas, Paul. Thanks so much for taking the time to share. We can incorporate all 4 of your ideas.

That's awesome Heather! I love that you realize the unique situation you're in and view it as an opportunity. A couple of suggestions come to mind…

1) Look at what keywords people are using to find your site. (If you don't already have Google Analytics integrated with your website, do that so you can get this info.) This will help you understand what people are looking for. Based on that you can create content (web pages, blog posts or even videos) that address the things people are looking for.

2) Imagine you are visiting (or going to visit) Carmel, CA. What info would you find helpful? Maybe some sort of visitors guide? Info about the area? Maybe a page that goes like this would help… "Planning a visit to Carmel, CA? Looking for some rest and renewal? Below we've included links to places that provide physical renewal, but what about your spiritual renewal? The people of (your church) invite you to join us for worship. We're here serve you whether you're visiting from across the state, across the country or across the globe…"

3) With social media, perhaps you could ask other orgs in your community to like your FB page – the chamber of commerce, visitors bureau. Before that, perhaps you like their pages & occasionally share local news and info

4) I'm not quite sure how to do this because the word "Carmel" is used in so many other contexts, but look for ways to "listen" in social media for people who are talking about Carmel, CA. Here's a Twitter search: https://twitter.com/search?q=carmel%2C%20CA&s… Maybe there would be ways to respond to some tweets.

We have a unique situation. Our church is small and in a small town (4,000), but we have many visitors from all over the world who stop in to see the church while in Carmel, CA. More than 4 million visitors come to our area each year. We want to reach out to everyone with our message of love and wholeness for the world, so we are looking for suggestions for providing meaningful content, both for our locals and for an international audience.

Perhaps you could provide some suggestions to engage this wide audience.

Good points Kurt! I've heard a few pastors say they actually do some sermon prep through social media. They'll ask a question that leads into the topic and then share some of the responses (usually without names) in the message.

One way a church can help its members talk about faith online is by sharing links to blog posts or news stories related to faith with a question above it. Or even just simple questions like… Where did you see God at work today?

Another thing I didn't go into at all in this post is that a church can play a significant role in helping church members get connected with each other on social media, thus strengthening relationships.

I recommend the church have its own profiles on the social media platforms it chooses to engage in. That way the pastor can delegate the use of that account to one or more other people. Members of the church – including the pastor – can follow the church's account and engage with it – reply, retweet, etc.

Thanks for the update Terry. Sounds like you're making progress, slowly but surely. Keep it up!

Another idea that's starting to form in my head (though not completely worked out) is trying to find a way to help and encourage members to be open about their faith online in a natural and authentic way. We tend to have 2 ways Christians speak about God, 1. Many Christians only talk about God in Christian company and they censor themselves in public and 2. A Christian does talk/post about God, but it's either overtly evangelistic ("you need to convert") or it's in your face ("you sinners!!"). I think helping people to be able to live and speak their faith authentically and naturally would be good.

It's not a forced thing or even something that has a specific end goal. It's just that God works in our lives all the time, so why wouldn't we talk about it. I'm not sure how, as a church, this is done, but I think it would be the most effective way for the "church" (the members) to use social media to grow the church.