For years friends pestered me to sign up for Facebook, the social networking website that keeps you up to date with people you know well or not so well. Since I wasn't that interested in the movie preferences of my ninth grade lab partner or in the gossip from my mother's third cousin, I figured, Why spend precious time online that I desperately need for face-to-face relationships?

Then, on a whim, I signed up for Facebook. I have been surprised by how useful it has been as a ministry tool, especially for preaching.

Over the past four months as I've mentioned being on Facebook, more than 35 percent of our congregation have become "friends." I've also added as "friends" a couple of dozen folks who have dropped out of church altogether, plus a number of unchurched people (from my kids' soccer teams and school, mostly). I now have a new level of interaction with these people, which I'm finding very helpful. Here's how:

Understanding the hearts ...