Social Media: A Window into your Church with Florence Sevensma
How can churches use social media as a genuine extension of ministry?
In this webinar episode, Florence Sevensma helps unpack why digital presence matters for congregations of every size. She explores how people now “visit” online long before showing up in person, how small, consistent rhythms build trust, and why storytelling (not perfection) is what creates connection. Florence also shares practical, sustainable steps for capturing content, involving volunteers, and protecting both tone and mission. It’s an encouraging, accessible guide for ministry leaders who want to reach people scrolling for hope, belonging, and a place to land.
About Florence Sevensma
Florence is a community-driven marketing strategist with over a decade of experience helping organizations communicate their mission with clarity and purpose. She currently serves as the Social Media Manager for Pregnancy Care Canada, creating content that brings hope to those navigating unexpected pregnancies, and manages the social media presence for Camp Mishewah, sharing the transformative impact of camp ministry.
Her heart for community and storytelling led her to found Your Content Flo, a creative agency dedicated to amplifying the good works of purpose-driven individuals, non-profits, ministries, and businesses. She believes social media is one of the most effective ways to reach people in pivotal moments, helping them discover supportive communities, meaningful resources, and transformative spaces.
At the core of everything she does is a simple goal: helping purpose-driven people and organizations be more visible, more connected, and more impactful online.
Show Notes
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Transcript
John Borthwick
Welcome to the Ministry Forum Podcast where we believe that you are not alone in your ministry journey. I'm The Reverend John Borthwick, your host coming to you from the Center for Lifelong Learning at Knox College. Here, we connect, encourage and resource ministry leaders all across Canada in the joys, the struggles and everything in between. I love that I get to do this work, and most of all that, I get to share it with each and every one of you. So thanks for giving us a listen today. Whether you're a seasoned leader or just starting out, this podcast is made with you in mind.
Welcome to the Ministry Forum Podcast.
Today, we're sharing a recording of a recent webinar that I think many of you will find both practical and encouraging. Our presenter is Florence Sevensma, a community driven marketing strategist with over a decade of experience helping organizations communicate their mission with clarity and purpose. Florence currently serves as the Social Media Manager for Pregnancy Care Canada and Camp Mishewah, and she's the founder of your content flow, a creative agency dedicated to amplifying the work of purpose driven organizations.
Florence brings something important to this conversation. She'll be sharing her own story of how belonging to a church community changed her life, and that personal experience shapes everything she has to say about why our online presence matters. Her webinar is called social media, a window into your church, and she's going to help us think about our digital presence not as marketing, but as ministry, as a way of reaching people in those pivotal moments when they're searching for connection, community and hope, often without even knowing that's what they're looking for. If you've ever wondered whether your church really needs to show up on social media, or if you've felt overwhelmed by the thought of just adding one more thing to your already full plate, this conversation is for you. Florence will show us how to do this work with purpose, even with limited time and resources. Here's Florence Sevensma.
Florence Sevensma
Thank you. Thank you so much for that introduction and for inviting me. I am so excited to be here today. I love talking with churches, nonprofits, and to be honest, anyone who will listen about how they can use social media to reach people who need them most. So a little bit about me. I'm from the UK, hence the accent and the pace of which I talk. So if you need me to slow down, just let me know. John will be moderating today. Thank you so much. So feel free to post questions, and we can cover those as we go along. I will leave some time at the end for some Q and A. So as John mentioned, I'm the Social Media Manager at Pregnancy Care Canada. It's a Christian nonprofit. I oversee our national media communications, and I absolutely love my role. It combines both my professional skills for online communications and my passion for supporting people in need, pointing them to resources, community and hope. I like my introduction. I truly believe that social media is one of the best ways to reach those who might otherwise be overlooked, people longing for hope, belonging, and it can serve as a reminder that they're not alone. Pointing people towards hope is a topic deeply personal to me. I'll share a bit of my own story shortly, but yeah, let's get started.
So as you may know, social media is a massive topic, but today we will be exploring the following. I expect this webinar to be about 45 to 60 minutes. I think it was supposed to be longer, but I talk really fast, so we'll see how we go. So we will be exploring why social media should become an integral part of your church's communication, shifting the view from marketing to an extension of your ministry. By the end, you will understand how social media shapes perception, trust and belonging. So through that, you'll recognize that people now experience community and connection online before they ever visit in person.
We're going to answer the question, we already have a website and newsletter. Why add social media? I know you're all stretched so thin, so we will touch on this. And although this workshop is more about the why, we will shift gears slightly to lean into how you can manage this and an overview of how to get started in amplifying your mission. And through that, we will be using your church's strengths and mission to guide your content strategy. Then we're going to map your visitor's journey to guide how you show up online. Then we'll discuss how to build a sustainable strategy that aligns with your church's capacity, starting small, choosing achievable rhythms and empowering volunteers to serve well and without burnout.
And then we'll end with a bit of homework. Who loves homework? So I have some handouts for you guys, yeah, John, and a little offer if you want someone one to one support. So my hope for this is that you'll leave seeing social media as a window, a living reflection of what God is doing in your church. And like I mentioned, post your questions. And John, feel free to interrupt me at any time. So first, we're going to start with an icebreaker. I would love to know how you use social media.
John Borthwick
I'll jump in to break the ice just to help people along. I use social media to keep to bring me more and more pictures of squirrels. I appreciate squirrels, and I seem to follow them on my social media platforms. That may not be a ministry, but I do enjoy just entertaining myself with pictures of squirrels. Others might have more learning or better things that they're doing with social media.
Florence Sevensma
Can anybody top that well?
Webinar Participant
At our church, I mean, I use social media for different reasons, but mostly I use it for the ministry of the church, mostly for for blogging and posting sermons, the music that we play, the from the choirs to praise team. We do prayers online as well. So we're we, our church is involved with a number of social media platforms. So we touch about seven or eight different social medias today that I that we send out. So that's how we do it. I mean, we've had some great success. I think our online ministry is as big as our in house ministry. Anyways, that's for me.
Florence Sevensma
Thank you. Would anybody else like to share
John Borthwick
See some activity in the chat? Florence, for sure.
Florence Sevensma
Okay, perfect. Will you be able to read that out for me?
John Borthwick
John, Oh, totally. Florence, yep. So apparently I have a kindred spirit in Paul Kang. He says that he uses Insta to watch golden retriever videos. Nice. And Helena uses information they share about events and concerts.
Florence Sevensma
Okay, perfect. So thank you all for sharing. So I use social media in the same ways. I don't follow squirrels or golden retrievers. Definitely use it for entertainment. I use it for news. I am a millennial, so I will actually get my first point of news from there, to find like minded people. So I guess you guys have connected on your shared social media use. I love following other creators, and if I want to buy a product, I will watch a bunch of reviews on social media, especially if it's expensive, I will watch quite a few different videos on the same topic. And I actually always will check out a social media page of anywhere I plan to visit or any website, anytime I see a website, I will always click on their social media just out of curiosity.
So BrightLocals 2025, local consumer review survey supports that they found that 34% of people use Instagram to research local organizations before visiting, up from just 17% a few years ago. The same instinct is what potential visitors use when exploring your church, they'll click on your website, but it's more than likely they'll look you up on social media to get a feel of your church before they decide on visiting.
So before we go further, I want to start with a story, because sometimes the story reminds us of why this matters, and my story might mirror the journey of someone your church has been called to reach. So I have grown up in a Christian home. I've always believed in Jesus, but during my teen years, I didn't live a life that reflected that. I don't know if I'm alone in that. So at 19, I found myself pregnant. I went through all the expected emotions of an unplanned pregnancy, being terrified, ashamed, scared to tell my parents, but after all the chaos and with the support of my family, we made a plan a way for me to have my baby, continue university and get my life back on track. So through this, I found Christ again, and I knew that being part of a church community was going to be integral to my walk. So my search started.
The first church I went to was a local church, and it wasn't set up for someone like me, and that's okay, just wasn't the right fit. But that experience left me a little nervous to visit a bunch of churches. I was an unmarried teen mom, and I still carried a lot of shame, so thankfully, the second church I visited was the one that became my home church. I found community friends and Mark here that I'd feature him, the man who'd later become my husband. I'm blessed. I come from a Christian home. I know the culture. I know why church is an important part of our faith. So I knew I was going to keep looking until I found the right fit. But what about the person who today, who doesn't have that background. What about the unemployed, the down in hope, the newcomer, that person desperately searching online for hope or community, but scared about looking for a church.
So social media back then was completely different. This was 14 years ago. But today you have the opportunity to reach them and so many like them right where they already are. And it's also true that post-covid, a lot of people have stepped away from church, physically, but not spiritually. According to the 2024 Hartford Institute's exploring the pandemic impact on congregation study, my goodness, 30% of current worshipers have joined their church within the past five years. So that tells us there's a need. People are still searching, exploring and looking for a spiritual home. Add to the social climate we're living in constant news cycles, political tensions, uncertainty. There's a renewed hunger for truth, hope and community.
Pew Research found that 53% of adults get at least some of their news from social media. I don't know. Would you guys agree with that? Do you get your news from social media as well? Yeah, or you're more old school newspapers the news on TV, that means your message of hope and truth can reach people who aren't even searching for a church, because social platforms surface content while people are just scrolling. A sermon on YouTube can reach those who look for it, but a 10 second clip of your Sunday service on Instagram might reach someone who didn't know they needed to hear it yet, and they might even share it with a friend who is actively searching. So the key takeaway here is your church's online presence isn't just marketing. It's part of your ministry. It's the window people look through to see what God is doing in your church.
So we've just talked about social media as a window, a first glimpse. Let's look at why that window matters so much, and what people are actually hoping to see when they peek through it. So social media has changed how people explore everything. It's no longer just about information. It's about filling in those gaps to create a clearer picture of what attending or being part of your church looks like they're asking. What does Sunday look like? Are there families like mine? Do they have kids, youth, women's, men's ministry? Would people my age feel comfortable here? People are often looking for glimpses of themselves reflected in your church, signs that they could belong. Do you feel that that could be reflected easily on a website?
So Pew's 2024 social media study shows that almost half of US adults use Instagram, and over 70% use Facebook. For nonprofits and local organizations. Those are the top platforms for building awareness and trust. Social media can give a sense of tone or vibe more than a paragraph on your website ever could. And in this day and age of fake links, scams and misinformation, social media can add that extra layer of trust and realness. People use it to gage credibility and authenticity before making decisions, even spiritual ones.
So years ago, churches posted bulletin board bulletins on their doors so neighbors could get an idea of what was happening. Today your social media is that Bulletin Board. It's where people can get glimpses of who you are, what belonging might look like, and what's happening in your community long before they visit.
So you might be wondering, we have a good website. Our sermons are on YouTube. We send regular newsletters. We're already stretched. Is it really that important to add social media? And the short answer is yes, some of you might not like that, but. But that's the answer. So your website and newsletters are great, but they're mainly but they mainly serve people who are already engaged or intentionally looking. You don't usually subscribe to a newsletter from a place you've never interacted with. Social media meets people who haven't made that step yet. It catches them in the scroll, answers questions they're asking, and builds an additional layer of understanding about who your church is. So think of it this way, your website is your front desk. It tells people who you are when you meet, what you offer. Your newsletter is your bulletin board. It keeps your congregation informed. And social media is your foyer, where newcomers can peek in and experience what belonging in your church may look like.
We're going to look at two churches. Church A has strong sermons, great website, good kids program, but they have no social media presence whatsoever. You don't get a sense of the building, what people wear, what to expect. For someone vulnerable, that uncertainty can become an obstacle. Church B, they have strong sermons too, and programs, so pretty much the same as Church A, but their difference is they have an active social media presence. They have youth night clips. They have a warm hello from the leaders, a post about the groups, another showing about what Sunday looks like. So maybe church a might be closer to me, but Church B shows community, and that's what helps a newcomer take the first step.
Now it's not competition. We all have the same goal in mind, to give hope and point to Jesus. So the focus here is just about visibility for your mission, and for those you have been called to reach. If you stay hidden, you miss out on reaching someone who needs a church like yours.
So why does this matter? Think of this this way. If a restaurant serves incredible food but only relies on its website, fewer people will try it, and it's the same with church, except you're offering something far greater, hope, community and a place to encounter Jesus. So the key takeaway here is your website informs, your newsletter deepens, but your social invites.
So now we've established the why, I hope the why has been very, very clear. We're gonna look at how to use it in a way that reflects your church's heart, without turning it into a second job. So your first step is just start with what God's already doing. The best social media strategies don't start with algorithms. They start with your mission. Your mission already has everything your community needs to see. It should feel like the overflow of what God is already doing in your church, not a whole separate project.
Then you want to reframe it. It's not about promotion, it's storytelling. It's about amplifying, making every post a small glimpse of God at work. And remember, this is something so important, also, somebody who is in the social media world, all you have to do is show up and do your part. It's God's job to bring the people. It's God's job to amplify your reach.
So you want to ask yourself two questions, what is the heart of our church's calling and who are we hoping to reach. You'll often find that there's a natural overlap, because your mission shapes who you reach, and who you reach shapes how your mission looks in action.
So let's look at our fictional church called Sunday. They have a thriving youth ministry and a women's Bible study. They're currently studying grace and difficult seasons. The congregation is full of young families. They have older people too, but these older people are on fire for the mission. They're kind of like the grandparents of the church, and their mission is simple, to build a community where families and individuals can grow in faith and find belonging. That's their heartbeat, and their social media should reflect that. And then we're going to meet Ava, our fictional visitor. She's a newly single mom with two teenagers. She loves Jesus, but feels disconnected after her husband has left her. She searches for churches online, scrolling through websites, they all kind of look the same. Then she finds Sunday. She sees clips of youth night, which is important for her. She wants a supportive community for her teens as they navigate this new season. She sees a reel from the Women's Bible study, glimpses of potential future friends and a village. And this gives her the courage to visit, to step out of her vulnerability. That's alignment when your mission meets someone's needs right where they are.
So let's bring it home. If you think about your own church, where do you see fruit. What programs or stories bring life? These are the places to start sharing from, because that's where people can see God moving most clearly. Here's examples from my fictional church. So there is church's mission is to build a community where families and individuals can grow in faith and belonging. They're thriving in youth ministry, women's ministry and family events. And they're you uniquely positioned for someone looking for hope and community.
Sometimes your church, is a local church. So I just wanted to add this example. It's not always as clear cut as this, because it's true churches just kind of impact whoever is around. But it is good to make note of that. Are you a church that's in a business district and a lot of your congregations, like young adults doing business and things like that? Is it in a family area? Is it in a place that has a high unhoused population? So you just want to think about all these things as you answer these questions, and these three things will form the foundation of your content strategy.
Once you know what makes your church unique, the next step is showing up online, and we're going to map that journey from curiosity to connection. So we're going to move our person from awareness to belonging. And this is why mapping matters. So every person engaging with your church online is somewhere on a journey. Maybe they're just quietly searching, maybe they've attended once or twice, but haven't connected yet, or maybe they're already part of your church watching from home and need reminders of what in person community looks like, so your content can meet each of them where they are.
So this is the three stage journey we have, awareness, connection and belonging. At the Awareness stage, they're asking, Who are they? What do they believe? So the kinds of contents you want is something that answers those questions. So maybe something about your Sunday sermon, that helps with what do they believe? Something that shows that you're inclusive, that answers, who are they? Then we have connections. They're asking, Could I fit in here? So you want to create content that builds familiarity and trust. And belonging, they're saying, I want to be a part of this.
So you want to have engaging content that is inviting. So how to start? I always recommend a three day posting strategy. So a Monday, Wednesday, Friday. So on Monday, you want to post your sermon, recap. On Wednesday, you want to post a highlight, maybe talk about an event coming, team. Highlight, volunteer, highlight, anything like that, and then on Friday, clips that you took last Sunday, and then you're reinviting people for this weekend. So it's simple, repeatable rhythm. And of course, you can change this around. That's just kind of an idea.
So you don't need fancy equipment, just a simple plan, your phone some time, and free tools like Canva and catcap, these three types of posts can already make such a difference. But of course, none of this matters if it's not sustainable.
So how can your church start and keep up with this? You need to find your capacity. So every church has a different level. Some have paid members. Some have a creative team. Some have just volunteers who can really rely on the goal is to figure out your individual Church's capacity, and it's a good time to look at who you could invest in in this area, if you feel that there is nobody. I always recommend two people doing social media if they're volunteers. This balances accountability, backup and well-being. You can start with one, but then amend your posting schedule to suit that. And the most important part of this for me, especially if you're working with volunteers, is include a review process. So before any post goes out, someone should review it. They're checking is, does this message align with our mission and faith values? Is the tone consistent with your church's voice? Are there any biblical references? And if there are, are they accurate and in context? And this person should ideally be in leadership. You should not be asking your volunteers to shoulder this weight. This protects both the church and the volunteer, but once you have somebody in paid communications role, this can. You the responsibility after some training.
So here is a five-step workflow to get you started. Number 1 is capture on a Sunday or at any events, take five to 10 second clips. Number 2 is store them in a shared folder Google Drive. Or teams for work, we use teams, also for camp, actually, and then, but for my own personal things, I like Google Drive. And then the aim is just that anybody who needs access to the clips has access. And then you want to create, start putting those things together. Use capcut for your video editing. It's nice and free. And then use Canva to make your carousels, and this is a time you also want to take to write up captions. Then number 4, like I mentioned, have leadership review the final version. And then number 5, schedule. This is a great way to lessen the load for your volunteers. Use a scheduling app like Meta Business Suite or Buffer. They then can post everything on there, have it ready to go out, and then it takes away from manual scheduling or that pressure during the week, I use Buffer, and I love it so much, so that would be my recommendation.
And then I just added a bonus one, which is monitor. Have someone monitor the comments and DMs so that they can you can get back to somebody is asking, Are you meeting this Sunday? Or is there kids church? Things like that. You want somebody to be able to respond to those but I understand that if your capacity is lower, you're not always able to monitor. So one thing I do with my Pregnancy Care clients is I add filters for comments so they have to be approved before they show up on the social media. So if you're concerned that somebody is going to leave some weird comments, you can add those filters. It just gives that extra layer of support.
So that's a simple flow to get you started. Next is we know what to post, but what platforms should be focused on, and what should our measure of success be? So my biggest recommendation is Instagram. That should be your main hub. That's where everybody is this these days. I know Facebook is really great, but Facebook is really for people who are already engaged with your church. So you want to post on Instagram, and then there's an option in Instagram to cross post to Facebook, so you don't need to create two different types of posts, just whatever you post on Instagram, post on Facebook. I would skip Tiktok completely at this point, unless you have a paid member who's able to manage it. Tiktok can be a powerful tool, but it requires constant monitoring, and you just want to start where you can be consistent.
So I wanted to talk about measuring impact. So there's something called vanity metrics. These are surface level stats, so your likes, your comments, your follow account, they look impressive, but they don't always show the real impact. So what should we do instead? We should always just create with our mission in mind. We should ask ourselves, who will this encourage and who might visit because of this at the end of the day, if we do our part and trust God with the rest, we shouldn't feel pressured to reach thousands. Just focus on reaching the one, the impact, the outcome that's all in God's hands. And to be honest, that's a true measure of impact. Everything else can just distract from the mission. I will say, though, when you do have somebody in an official capacity, it is wise to track data and include it into your strategy, but until then, just focus on creating content, staying consistent and amplifying your mission.
I wanted to talk about trends. I think trends are an amazing tool. They can give your content a real boost, and I do recommend them, as long as it aligns with your church and feels authentic to who you are. If you're short on time, you can start by using trending sounds. It's one of the easiest ways to join in without over complicating things. So what you would want to do is just take those five to second clips you already captured on Sunday, add those to trending sounds directly in Instagram, and just make sure that the sound fits your message and values. So you might want to listen through to really make sure that they're not saying anything a bit off. And if you feel unsure about how to purpose your content, I will be dropping my a little Google form so you can join my mail list, and I'll be sharing tips on that.
So with a three posts per week rhythm, two people managing the process and a leader reviewing content, your systems should become sustainable. But if that still feels like too much, you can scale back to once or twice a week. And this is called a light on strategy. It's just basically like, Hi, we're still here. We're open. Just keep in mind that posting only once can make you feel like a bulletin board more than a community space. So to avoid that, aim for at least two posts a week, one recap video that shows what life at your church looks like and one post that invites people to join you or highlight something happening in your community. If you can only manage one that's okay, just make it count. Prioritize sharing a glimpse of church life and include your service times and address in your caption and always in your Instagram bio. That way, even with a lighter schedule, your page still feels alive and welcoming rather than just informational.
So what next? Today we've covered the why, why Social Media Matters for your ministry. We've looked at the how, how to align it with your mission and your audience. We've discussed sustainability, how to establish a rhythm that protects your team and maintains a consistent message. So what comes next?
I just want you to take a moment to pause and reflect. Ask yourself, who is the “Ava” in your community? Who is that person scrolling late at night, searching for connection, truth or hope, but still nervous to walk through the doors of your church. That person is the reason that this matters. Social media isn't about trends or technology. It's about opening a door to someone who needs to see where they can belong.
So before we close, I promised you homework, so I will give John the link to this. It's just a little six-page workbook that helps you expand on this. So in it, there's a page about clarifying your mission, defining your visitor, and considering your capacity. And I also share an extended version of the social media workflow, really what each step is, and then you can read what each step is and work out who could do that and some suggestions of which steps can be combined. Once you've worked your way through it, you'll be ready to start creating posts that genuinely reflect your church, posts that feel natural, inviting into to your mission.
And then I want to leave you with this. Remember, your social media isn't just a communication tool, it's an open window through it, people can glimpse the warmth faith and hope that your church carries. Some will find your website because they're searching, but others, the one still unsure, still longing, might find your post mid scroll, and that could be the invitation that changes everything. You don't have to reach thousands. Just be faithful with what's in front of you. Show up consistently, share what God is doing and trust him with the reach. You plant the seeds. God brings the growth.
John Borthwick
Thanks for joining us on the Ministry Forum Podcast. We hope today's episode encouraged you and reminded you that you are not alone in ministry. If this episode resonated, tell someone please don't give us a secret. And if you can subscribe, rate or leave a review wherever you listen, it helps us reach more ministry leaders just like you, and honestly, it reminds us that we're not alone either. Find more resources and ways to connect at ministryforum.ca and follow us on social media @ministryforum, until next time, may God's strength and courage be yours. May you be fearless not reckless, may you be well in body, mind and spirit, and may you be at peace.