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You Can't Do That on Facebook: Groups Directory

People often point to Facebook and wonder why the church would even need the Table. Facebook is ideal for outreach, but it falls short at building community. That's what the Table is all about. We encourage churches to use Facebook and the Table together. But the fact is there are things you can't do on Facebook that the Table is designed to do.

Like having a groups directory.

You can set up as many groups as you want on the Table. They can be official ministry groups like women's ministry, youth group or your small group, or they can be fun groups based on interests, like football fans, music heads or knitters. You can designate official groups and even make groups private.

You can create the same kinds of groups on Facebook. But good luck finding them. There's no connection between those groups and your church. If someone visits your church's Facebook Page, there's no automatic way to find all your groups. That makes connecting and plugging in kind of hard. There might be some manual work arounds, but that's staff time to set up, requires constant maintenance and discourages people from setting up their own groups.

But it's different on the Table. There's an entire directory of groups:

• You can browse through them all to find the group for you.
• You can search for a group that might appeal to your interests.
• You can launch your own group and invite others to join you.

You can do groups on Facebook, but you can't do interconnected groups. Which is really what happens in church, right? You've got your entire church, but then you have all kinds of groups within your church. The Table's groups directory was designed with that in mind: Simple groups that are easy to find and encourage connection.

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You Can't Do That on Facebook: Map Your Church Members

People often point to Facebook and wonder why the church would even need the Table. Facebook is ideal for outreach, but it falls short at building community. That's what the Table is all about. We encourage churches to use Facebook and the Table together. But the fact is there are things you can't do on Facebook that the Table is designed to do.

Like mapping your congregation.

The Table offers a map view of all the people in your church. There they are, little people icons spread across the map. Each one gives you a general idea where people in your church live (icons are shown within a half-mile of the actual address to protect privacy).

• You can see who in your church lives in your neighborhood.
• You can plan a small group or an evening hang out based on location.
• You can find a central location to have a meeting.

It makes planning and connecting that much easier. You can't do that on Facebook. And with a worldwide social network, you probably wouldn't want to. Sometimes smaller is better.

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You Can't Do That on Facebook: Church Directory

People often point to Facebook and wonder why the church would even need the Table. Facebook is ideal for outreach, but it falls short at building community. That's what the Table is all about. We encourage churches to use Facebook and the Table together. But the fact is there are things you can't do on Facebook that the Table is designed to do.

Like having a church directory.

The Table gives you a picture directory of your church. It's an easy way to connect with your congregation, whether you're meeting an old friend or getting to know a new one. You can learn names, search for interests and skills and even find contact information.

Not so much on Facebook. If your church has a Facebook Page, the best you can see is your fellow friends who also like the church page or maybe you can click on people who comment. But there's no easy way to meet people you don't know. There's no way to see all the people in your church. There's no way to connect and interact, unless you're already friends.

But with the Table's directory, you can do so much more:

• You can find and connect with new people.
• You can search for interests and invite people to join a new group.
• You can use the random feature to learn names.
• You can use the map to find out who lives in your neighborhood.
• You can use your mobile device to look someone up when you forget their name.

There are all these ways to connect as a body. You can't do any of that on Facebook.

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Table Tip: Get to Know People

Getting to know people in church has never been easier, thanks to the Table's directory. Click on ‘People' at the very top of the Table and down slides the directory. The first thing you should know is that people are sorted randomly—and that's on purpose. The directory is designed to help you connect with people in your church. Here's how you can get to know people:

• Learn Names and Faces: You can page through those random faces and start matching them with names. This is an easy way to learn names in your church, whether you're new or just have a hard time remembering names.
• Go Deeper: Click on any person to learn more. Table profiles are intentionally short (it's not about "me," it's about "us"), but you can get a snapshot of who they are. Take a look at their skills and interests (assuming they added that info) or check out their other social media profiles to learn even more.
• Drop Them a Line: You're trying to connect with people, not stalk them, so you need to get in touch. When you mouse over each person an envelope icon appears—click it to send them a quicknote. Let them know you're thinking of them, ask a question or just say hi.

Use the directory and get to know your church.

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We're Not Alone

This incredible story came in during our Birthday Video Contest from Patrick at PaulAnn Baptist Church. He talks about the support his family received at PaulAnn when they were baptized.

It's a great example of the church truly being the body.

You can watch Patrick's video on YouTube for the full story.

Do you have a story like this? You've got one more day to share it in our Birthday Video Contest (and maybe win an iPad!). Or if video isn't your thing, you can share your story here.

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Table Tip: Get Local

The Table's people directory has a handy map. Check it out to find people from your church who live in your neighborhood. It's a great way to make church even more local. First send them a quicknote and introduce yourself. Make a new friend. Then you can make local work for the both of you.

• Knowing some local church members is a great way to carpool. Maybe you're not ready to carpool every Sunday, but once in a while it could be convenient.
• Pick a local coffeeshop and invite several nearby church members to meet up. Get to know each other in person and share some neighborhood secrets (what's the best pizza, who has the best takeout, etc.).
• Fire up the Serve App and make it local. Sharing your weedwhacker with a church member across town might not make sense, but it works for your neighbor down the street. Share stuff from yard tools to DVDs and help each other out with babysitting and lawn mowing.

You're not alone: Church just got local.

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Not Feeling Alone

Park Community Church in Chicago launched the Table this weekend. It's been so cool to see reactions showing up on Twitter. This is one of our favorites:

Just being able to see who from your church lives in your neighborhood is encouraging. There's a lot of potential in that simple map.

If you're wondering what the Table can do for your church, check out what it's done for other churches. Check out these stories (and remember to tell your own stories!). You can share your story in our Birthday Video Contest and you could win an iPad.

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Putting a Name to a Face

Connecting with people has always been a challenge in church. If you're new you don't know where to start and you're quickly overwhelmed. If you've been there for a while, it's awkward to ask someone's name when you should really know it. But nothing elicits a smile like remembering someone's name and making them feel welcome.

The Table's directory gives your church a way to start learning and remembering names and make connecting less of a challenge.

How is the Table impacting you? Read more stories like this one or share your own.

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Friends Matter

Churches go to great lengths to ensure that people enjoy and come back to church. We have charismatic leaders, contemporary music, great production values, intimate small groups, trained greeters, parking lot attendants and more. But none of it matters.

What does matter? Friendships with other Christians.

As Peter Haas, pastor of Substance Church in Minneapolis and Table Project board member, shared (PDF):

"One
 study 
found 
that 
98%
 of 
church 
satisfaction 
can 
be 
predicted
 simply 
by measuring 
how 
many 
intimate 
Christian 
friends 
our 
congregation 
members 
have 
at any 
given 
moment! 


Think 
about 
that 
for 
a 
second! ... more 
than 
tears
 cried
 in worship 
experiences ... 
more 
than 
'quantity 
of 
church 
services 
attended' ... 
more 
than the 
quality 
of 
the 
speaking ... 
more 
than 
the 
quality 
of 
the 
facility, 
the 
number 
one
 cause 
of 
church 
satisfaction 
was 
quantity 
of 
intimate 
Christian 
friends.
"

One way to encourage connection, community and friendship within your congregation is with the Table. People can be introduced through the directory and then get to know each other as they discuss, serve and pray together throughout the week.

Watch as Peter explains how the Table helps church members develop friendships:

Watch Substance: Church Friends (1:29)

Watch the full webinar, How They Did It: Substance Church Case Study, for more on how Substance has utilized the Table.

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Random Connections: Why We Sort People Randomly

When you first visit the "People" tab on the Table, you may have noticed that people are sorted randomly.

Why sort people randomly by default? Good question.

There are three ways people can be sorted—random, newest and alphabetical. Sorting people alphabetically may be the standard approach for a directory, but that's not what we did by default. If you sort people alphabetically you'll almost always be looking at the same crowd. That's great for the Maya Adamson's of the world, but it doesn't introduce you to new people all the time.

That's what sorting randomly accomplishes—every time you click to browse people, you get a random selection of 12 people from your church. That means you're always seeing different names and faces.

• You may discover people in your church you don't even know. But now you have a name and face so you can say hello on Sunday.
• You may recognize some faces but you never knew their names. Now you do. On Sunday you can put that little bit of knowledge to the test and start a conversation.
• You may see an old friend you haven't talked to in a while. Send 'em a quicknote and reconnect.

That's just three positive outcomes from random sorting. As practical as it is, you don't get that with alphabetical sorting. That's why we do it randomly by default—we think it's that important for the Table to help you connect with people. After all, it's all about community.

If you need to get things done, you can still browse people alphabetically. We just wanted the default to be about connection, not utility. 

You can also sort by "newest" and see who's joined your Table recently. It's fun to see who's new and welcome them to the Table.

So next time you browse people, take a minute to meet a random new face.

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