Making a Covenant for Your Church Facebook
By Megan Forgey, Communications Consultant.
This year has emphasized that Facebook is a ministry tool to communicate with and reach newcomers, as well as to foster your church community. When hosting a page for your church, it is beneficial to make a covenant for members to remember and follow to ensure that your church’s Facebook page is an inviting and community meant to foster our life in Christ.
These rules also set the tone of your group and clearly states what will and will not be tolerated within the group.
You can add group rules anytime to your Facebook group, simply click the group rules feature to add up to 10 rules. If your group is a closed one, you can require that new members accept the groups before they are admitted to the group.
If your church is classified as a page, use the description to display your covenant.
What to Include:
What is the purpose of your Facebook page? This not only helps you create content, but a clear message lets others in your group post accordingly. For instance, if the point of your church’s Facebook group is to minister to those in Northern California, members will feel invited to share local news stories, community-building stories, and news from the church.
The group rules feature from Facebook offers four example rules that you can use immediately or edit. These example rules are based on some of the most common rules admins use across many types of groups:
Be Kind and Courteous
We're all in this together to create a welcoming environment. Let's treat everyone with respect. Healthy debates are natural, but kindness is required.
No Hate Speech or Bullying
Make sure everyone feels safe. Bullying of any kind isn't allowed, and degrading comments about things like race, religion, culture, sexual orientation, gender or identity will not be tolerated.
No Promotions or Spam
Give more than you take to this group. Self-promotion, spam and irrelevant links aren't allowed.
Respect Everyone's Privacy
Being part of this group requires mutual trust. Authentic, expressive discussions make groups great, but may also be sensitive and private. What's shared in the group should stay in the group.
Your rules can also be as simple as the Diocese of Texas’:
By participating on the EDOT Facebook page, you are agreeing to our commenting policy, in which we reserve the right to delete posts containing any of the following elements: profanity, libel, personal attacks, group attacks, corporate attacks, hateful language, harassment, threats, willful misinformation, spam, advertising, off-topic or irrelevant posts, copyright or trademark infringement, or promoting illegal or questionable activities. If you repeatedly violate this policy, you will be removed from the page.
Respect the Dignity of All, a group formed by the Episcopal Diocese of Arizona to share activities and discussions from the Respect the Dignity of All: Kids Engaging Racial Equity formation program uses these rules:
Be Respectful, Kind and Courteous
It's right there in the name of the group! We're all in this together to create a welcoming environment. Let's treat everyone with respect. Healthy debates are natural, but kindness is required.
Keep Posts Related to "Respect the Dignity of All"
Please keep the discussion on-topic. Self-promotion, spam and irrelevant links aren't allowed.
Respect Everyone's Privacy
Being part of this group requires mutual trust. What's shared in the group, including images or descriptions of activities, should stay in the group.
We’d love to hear any suggestions for rules that you have! Send them in using the form below.