Making the most of Facebook

Wales online reports that Welsh chapels struggling for members are swapping prayer books for Facebook, hoping that younger people will be attracted by the social network site. Twitter is also being used. (I think this reported line might be a tad metaphorical; have the prayer books actually been ditched as yet?)

Some Welsh congregations have launched their own online TV station in a bid to salvage dwindling attendances. Annibynwyr TV is possibly the first internet channel of its kind launched by any denomination in the UK.

In the last three decades the average Welsh chapel congregation has gone from just under a 100 to around 50, and only around 60% of the chapels that existed 30 years ago are still functioning.

The Rev Andrew Lenny, president of the Union of Welsh Independent churches, says:

“We as a denomination are working towards utilising new media in order to engage with communities who we might not otherwise reach. While our key messages remain the same, we recognise that we have to embrace these new and vast means of reaching out to people.”

In your face video about suicide

Life: a Message of Hope for a Generation in Despair.

This British-made video (from Wales) is about ten minutes long, and consists of an introduction in which a guy with a shaved head goes full on at the camera telling us that the suicide is one aspect of the approach of the 'thief who comes to destroy', and that Jesus came to 'give us life'. Following this are three young people, all of whom have tried to commit suicide as well as self-harming on several occasions. Their testimonies have an edgy and scary reality, and they don't hold back on what's happened to them. In each case, Jesus has literally been their salvation. The video ends with the first guy inviting people to think about what they've seen and get in touch with them at igniteme.org.

It was made in response to a recent spate of youth suicides in South Wales, and stars Ignite's Mark Beacher, Dai Hankey, Richard Stanton and Jess Wilson.



Check it out: it's a great and sobering resource for young people, and may well save lives.