News & Views July 14

JULY MEMORY VERSE
"Give Praise to the Lord, Proclaim his name;
make known among the nations what he has done."
I Chronicles  16:8


JULY 18th WORSHIP
Connecting Point - 9:30 A.M. - Dining Hall
Worship  - 10:00 A.M. -  Family Center Gym and Online
Pastor Mark preaching: ACTS Series: "Filled with the Holy Spirit"
Read ahead - Acts chapter 2
NLC Kids - 10:00 A.M. - Rooms 101,103

At the Member Meeting last Sunday evening I shared some charts and graphs about NLC's social media reach. Our church buildings are visible to people who drive by, but our church's presence is also visible to people on-line. We haven't counted the cars that drive by the church, though I suppose we could if we wanted to. But our online visitors are automatically counted through a variety of "analytics" programs attached to the platforms we use, like Google, SubSplash, Facebook, Instagram, and etc. Here are some of the reports I shared.
Google. Our church can be found on the web through a variety of search engines. Google sends a monthly report showing the number of people who found us. Last January that number was 2, if I remember correctly. Last month that number was 2,561, following May's report of 2,400. Not all of those people actually log onto our webpage or call us, but we know they're looking for us.
SubSplash is the company we use to host our NLC Dinuba church app as well as handle our livestreaming services. I'm using SubSplash each week to write and send out this blog. Since January 2021 we've had about 250-275 app launches each month. Those are people who open up our church app to read this blog, access our calendar, give, or view a worship service on their smartphone. Of those people who open our app, between 150-200 people actually view a media item, likely our latest worship service.
Facebook. Cece Olea recreated and launched NLC's new Facebook page at the start of stay-at- home orders, March 2020. People quickly learned to find us there and view the video devotionals and worship services we produced three times a week for so much of the pandemic. Many people began to "follow" us on Facebook so they could receive notifications about our new videos and posts. If you haven't "followed" NLC on Facebook, please do. Followers and non-followers alike spent 21,800 minutes watching our videos during the first six months of this year. That's over 363 hours, or about 60 hours a month.
Who's watching on Facebook? Over the first 6 months about three-fourths of viewers were also our followers, though the percentage of non-followers who are viewing us is increasing each month to about 50/50 in June. In other words, a larger percentage of people who aren't following NLC are watching us. We might assume that more people who are new to NLC are taking an interest in us. More than 75% of people view our videos "on-demand" sometime during the week instead of live. And over half (58%) of people who visit our Facebook page and watch our videos are ages 25-44. We're reaching a young audience online!
Other platforms. NLC has a YouTube channel and an Instagram account, as well as a Facebook page for NLC Kids. I don't have stats for those platforms, but know they're effective at reaching even younger audiences.  Visit the NLC Kids Facebook page and catch some of the great videos Jessica and Josh Aquino have made for VBS.
What do these stats mean? They mean that NLC is reaching far beyond our walls with the Gospel and providing ready access to local families and others to meaningful ministries. As a part of NLC, you're already part of this social media reach, but you can increase it, too! It's an easy thing to click "like" on a Facebook page post, or even to "share" it on your own page. You see, the church can only reach so far. But when its members "share" it on our pages so many more people who might care about our church because of you might see something that draws them to the Lord, too.
The Gospel is meant to be shared person-to-person, and the Church is meant to be a gathering of actual people. Facebook and social media platforms aren't personal, but can certainly be tools to use in getting out the word and letting people know you can be a resource to them when they need it. By the numbers, it appears a lot of young people and young parents need it! So please "share" the Good News on your own social media platforms as part of the way you share the Good News!

LIFT meets Tuesday, 20th, 10 a.m., Room 114-115

Received Last Week (7/11):.......$8,210
Received YTD:.........................$393,624
Budget to Date: ………......….. $451,377
Budget Goal: ……….......……...$521,591
Needed Weekly: ……......………$18,281

Treasurer Chuck Boldwyn informed us at the Member Meeting that beginning in August this report will compare "Received YTD" gifts with "Expenses to Date" rather than "Budget to Date". This will give a clearer picture of our church's needs as we close our fiscal year on August 30th.