If there’s one thing we as inhabitants of the 21st-century are lacking, it’s not an abundance of social networks. For every behemoth like MySpace or Facebook there are dozens of niche networks where users with common interests can connect. Naturally, niche networks target Christians (if in fact Christianity can be considered a common interest). Though there are several viable options for Christians looking to interact online with like-minded individuals, MyChurch takes a slightly different approach. A few months ago I asked MyChurch co-founder Joe Suh about his site’s approach to online Christian community.
COLLIDE: What inspired you to create MyChurch?
Joe Suh: The church I attended at the time was using all sorts of tools to communicate—they used Xanga for a blogring, Flickr for their photos, Yahoo Groups for the small groups, iTunes for their podcasts, Evite for the events, and Friendster for their social networking. I thought it made sense to have one site where we could bring in all these tools and cater them to a local church to build their online community.
COLLIDE: What does using MyChurch hope to accomplish?
Suh: We want to help local churches engage their members between Sundays. We want churches to embrace social networking as the standard way of communicating online with their congregation. We already have 16,000 churches that have created their community profiles on MyChurch, and we’d like to see every single church in the U.S. eventually have some sort of social networking presence—whether it’s on MyChurch, MySpace, or Facebook.
COLLIDE: How can ministries and churches benefit from MyChurch?
Suh: Ministries and local churches can empower their members to be a closer-knit community—to network and connect with each other, to have conversations they may not normally have, and to pray for each other and help one another. One of my favorite features [of MyChurch] is the church sharing board where parishioners can post needs or haves. I think that’s a beautiful way a community can “be church” throughout the week.
COLLIDE: Do you see MyChurch as an alternative to Facebook and MySpace, or something different altogether?
Suh: I think MyChurch is actually complementary to these other networks. For example, we have a “MyChurch” application on Facebook that lets churches spread their events, sermons, and pictures through the Facebook networks of their members. We think Facebook and MySpace are fertile grounds for outreach, and we want to integrate and complement these sites as much as possible to allow Christians to be salt and light outside of their own church communities.
COLLIDE: In your opinion, should Christians have both a Facebook account and a MyChurch account?
Suh: I personally have and use both. I don’t discourage anyone from leaving Facebook just to join MyChurch. Both are great tools and can be used by believers for different purposes. As I mentioned, part of our vision is to complement Facebook and MySpace with MyChurch applications and widgets.
COLLIDE: What sets MyChurch apart from other Christian social networks such as Xianz or GodTube’s new offering?
Suh: We’re really geared toward local church networks and strengthening the connections that folks already have in real life. We’re not really about random strangers networking or sharing videos. Although it happens and new friendships are great, we think the real usefulness in social networking is mirroring a real offline network that meets face-to-face.
Our hearts are to serve and strengthen the local church. Trying to unite the entire Body of Christ together online is not what we’re trying to do.
To explore MyChurch visit www.mychurch.org.