The Metropolitan Congregation

A Networked Church

As a church which draws members and friends from a wide geographic area, we recognise that people connect with us on many levels in many different ways.

Some of our regular worshippers first walked through the door on a Sunday and connected with us in person through worship and fellowship. But also, some of our most committed members started to engage with us:

• via email,
• or by text message,
• or by Facebook 'friending/liking' or Twitter 'following',
• or by gaining an initial impression of what we're like by exploring this web site,
• or by following up a reference to us in an online listing or discussion,
• or by noticing a friend connecting with us via a social site and eventually connecting with us themselves.

Many of our people are keen text message users, emailers, web explorers, bloggers, mailgroup users, tweeters and Facebook befrienders. Much of our promotion and news sharing is done electronically.

And the arrival of smartphones, tablets, netbooks and laptops, alongside the static desktop computers that many people use at work or in public venues such as libraries and cybercafes, means that communication has never been faster, easier or more pervasive across time and place.

Electronic messaging and social networks have become very real ways for people who worship together on Sundays to maintain and develop friendships during the week, whenever the opportunity arises and wherever they might be at the time.

Social networks deliver these possibilities, and we believe these are valuable channels through which the church can share ideas, maintain contacts and receive feedback from inside the daily lives, loves, joys and frustrations of all who wish to engage with us.

So, in addition to all the conventional ways of communicating with our church as described on the Contact Us page, we invite people to:

• offer ideas and comments,
• raise issues and questions,
• make suggestions, and share news with us,

via our Facebook Page and our Twitter Account.

We see these as positive and exciting ways of enabling people to connect with a church which aims to reach beyond its walls, seeks to serve people across a wide area, and is prepared to engage with followers in their own time and place.