Social Media Work in Evangelical Lutheran Parishes 2012

The survey charted social media work done in the Evangelical Luther Church of Finland, as well as social media skills and attitudes towards social media. The survey began with questions on the respondents' use of social media and the Internet both in their work and in their leisure time. The respondents were also asked why they began working in social media and whether the time reserved for social media work was sufficient. Next, they were asked about the type of social media work that their parish did. The choices included: live streaming of church services, online discussions on the Internet in different forums, and contacting the youth, for example, through Facebook. Next, the survey charted respondent views on who in the church should be responsible for different types of social media work, such as building new social media services or marketing them. The respondents' views on social media education provided by the church were also studied. Those who had not participated in the social media education were asked why not. One question focused on what kind of support the respondents would like to have for social media work. In the next part, attitudes and experiences regarding web-based work and social media were investigated. The respondents were asked to what extent they agreed or disagreed a number of statement covering, for example, work community attitudes towards web-based work, interaction on the Internet, different ways of using social media, and motivation for social media use. The background variables included the respondents' age, gender, size of the parish, the type of municipality they worked in, the time they had worked for the church and their occupation. The respondents were also asked how often they read the Bible and prayed, and how conservative or liberal they felt their theological views were. Furthermore, the respondents were asked how much of their spiritual framework was influenced by revivalist movements and other religious movements within the Evangelical Lutheran Church.