Almost everyone's on Facebook now. If you're not then you're probably viewed as a weirdo by the majority of folk! I was recently sent a presentation which contained the latest facts and figures about social networks. Some of them are astounding:
- If Facebook were a country, it would be the 8th most populated in the world, just ahead of Japan
- Visiting social sites is now the 4th most popular online activity - ahead of personal email
- Every minute 13 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube
- The number of minutes spent on Facebook each day is 5,000,000,000
Back in August 2007 I started researching social networks and how the Church could use them to their advantage. Facebook was growing rapidly and MySpace was already very popular. Almost no one had heard of Twitter back then. I came across an emerging social network site called Ning. It allowed anyone to create a social network around any topic, and it didn't require much technical skill to set it up.
If Facebook were a country, it would be the 8th most populated in the world
As I have a keen interest in the musical side of worship I did a few Google searches to see if a social network existed that was specifically aimed at worship leaders and worship team members in the UK. It didn't. I felt that this was a great opportunity that God had handed to me and I proceeded to set up a social network, called He Must Increase (based on John 3:30), aimed at this segment of the church in the UK.
He Must Increase (HMI) grew in popularity quickly until there were over 1,000 members, most of whom were from the UK. It's been a great way for UK worship leaders to network with each other and to share both wisdom and struggles. One of the testimonies I received recently from an HMI member was very encouraging:
Dear Phil. I wanted to let you know about one fantastic way in which God has used your ministry of He Must Increase. I joined He Must Increase back in July 09, and immediately signed up with the Welsh Worship Leaders Group. We started discussing the need to bring people together in Wales in order to get resourcing, training and networking etc going in our nation (Wales). This led to my husband and I, and a small group of other worship leaders putting together a National Consultation Day for worship leaders across Wales which happened yesterday. It was an absolutely fantastic day, and a great deal of good stuff has come out of it. People particularly loved worshipping together with other Welsh worship leaders, and having lots of time to share and network together. All this because you were faithful to God in running this website and without knowing it became part of God's purposes to affect the whole of the nation of Wales.
As time progressed I started getting lots of members join from other countries and I realised I needed to make a decision. I either needed to open up HMI to the world or needed to start a new network for worship leaders and team members from across the world. After some prayer and discussion with some HMI members I decided to go for the second option and called it Worship The Rock (WTR). WTR grew even faster than HMI and in just over a year it had reached over 5,000 members.
Worship leaders and musicians who live in remote areas of the world, and don't necessarily have an obvious support network, have found WTR to be a helpful way of getting both encouragement and practical advice. A number of missionaries who are worship leaders are members of WTR, including a few from Haiti working for Compassion International.
I've received a number of positive comments about how WTR has been a blessing and I've included one of the comments below:
I've been blessed by WTR in so many ways. Having access to the combined experience of over 5,000 worship leaders and praise team members is priceless. When our pastor asked me to step up and start leading worship a few years ago after our prior worship leader left, I felt completely unprepared and like a fish out of water but did so anyway. I worked with our pastor a lot on the spiritual side of planning and leading worship. But for everything else networking with other worship leaders in the area was what I tried. Those are some busy people, so getting time with them was hard. Then I found WTR and I found what I needed. Every time I've run into a snare and have posted it on WTR I've gotten a wealth of good advice that has helped me through and grow in the process. I feel I've also been able to pass along some of what I've learned to others in the same way. Networking is such a powerful thing when it can be done efficiently. WTR does just that for me. When your praise team goes through a bit of creative drama it's very reassuring to know you aren't alone and how others have handled the problem.
Worship leaders from across the world have used WTR to network and support each other in all sorts of interesting ways. They share their worship set lists that they've been singing in their Churches, they share songs that they're currently writing and ask for constructive feedback and they share videos, photos and blogs. Probably the most popular side of the network is the forum where members discuss all sorts of topics ranging from the theology behind a popular worship song to a fun discussion about worship myths.
A lot has changed in social networking in the last couple of years. These days MySpace is on the decline, Facebook is increasing in popularity and, according to Wikipedia, Twitter is the fastest growing member community site in the world. In this fast changing world of technology there are some fantastic online opportunities to build one another up by sharing wisdom and experience. The Body of Christ can truly use social networking to its advantage.
