Evangelicals are usually early adopters of new technologies because we see potential to reach people with the gospel. We were quick to radio, television and social media. As each technology settles into our ministry rhythms, there comes a time to take stock. Is it fostering discipleship? Is it doing something unintended in our lives?
The EFC and its affiliate partners are deep into a research project to understand how social media affects the faith formation of teens and how youth ministry workers use social media in their ministries.
Please ask the youth ministry workers in your circles to take our survey, in English or French, at TheEFC.ca/IFS.
Social media is a whole other world layered onto the lives of our teens that is somewhat opaque to us and seemingly all-consuming for them. We’ve recently seen schools ban phones from classrooms largely to keep social media out, and there is a constant stream of reports suggesting it might be bad for our children’s mental health.
Despite the negatives, many ministry leaders also feel this is a tool with potential if it could just be turned for good. The #influencing_faith_study is trying to sort all of this out when it comes to questions of faith.
This research partnership has a survey open until April 30 for youth ministry workers (a survey for youth will follow shortly). [UPDATE: Youth survey is now open, also until April 30.]
Last year we interviewed about 40 people involved in youth ministry in Canada, learning about how they use social media and the reasons they do it. We probed specifically for how they use it for evangelism and discipleship.
We took their insights and wrote a survey to help us learn how prevalent their experiences and outlooks are among their youth ministry worker peers (volunteer and paid, full- and part-time).
We’re going to take all of this and release a research report along with ministry tools in September 2026, but first we need your help. Please ask the youth ministry workers in your circles to take our survey, in English or French, at TheEFC.ca/IFS.
Reprinted with permission from Faith Today (Jan/Feb 2026).