PUBLISHER 6 may 2025 www.goodnewsfl.org Good News • South Florida Edition My earliest recollection of my fascination with “statistics” - things like baseball batting averages, home runs, stolen bases, strikeouts - is when I was about five or six. Baseball was the dominant sport in my life at six years old. The Detroit Tigers were my team, partially growing up in Detroit, because Florida didn’t have a baseball team, football team, basketball team or a hockey team back when I was six. I credit sports as my pathway to learning things because that’s when I took an interest in reading. In Florida my parents had the Miami Herald delivered to our home each morning, and I would dig out the sports section, which was untouched; my parents and sister had no interest in sports, so that section was pristine and unfolded, and I, of course, would anxiously turn to the baseball statistics. In fact, without that morning ritual reading about Rocky Colavito and Mickey Mantle, comparing how many home runs? or Whitey Ford and how many strikeouts and how many wins in comparison to all the other pitchers, I don’t think I would’ve had any interest in reading anything. “Statistics” for curiosity comparisons is a constant in my life for conversation, fulfilling my insatiable curiosity that many people also have as adults: what’s the best movie? What’s the best restaurant? What’s the favorite television program? What’s the favorite vacation spot? Lists, endless lists. Those are the beginnings of millions of conversations people have. We may think we are living in a more dynamic time and place than years past; after all we are living in the age of “social media.” We have tools like “Facebook.” The main difference about Facebook is a two-way engagement. Let me dig a little deeper here. We’ve had radio and television for over 70 years and for the most part it’s been free to the consumer - just like Facebook - because a radio and television set, just like a computer screen now, is all you needed. The radio that came in your car or the television in your living room was free once you plugged it into the electrical socket. Facebook similarly gives away their content for free, but just like radio and TV, advertisers provide the revenue to do so. Certainly, the new dynamic with Facebook is more unique. We can engage and express our opinions, we can “like” or “share” for a multitude of new viewers, as well as our current “friends.” More later on the “share” feature. The Good News currently maintains a running list that we ‘Facebook follow’ of over 514 that we track; however, some are national or even regional and thus are excluded from this analytic. Approximately 400 are local ministries, churches, universities, hospitals, and such to monitor content and engagement in our southern Florida community. We want to stay in touch and engaged. We also want to “share” our content - stories, articles and thoughtful columns by renowned leaders - to engage with the Evangelical community because we believe we are mandated to help grow disciples for the betterment of our kingdom. Facebook is but one important way to reach an audience for free. The audience consists of your friends and your followers, but the dynamic of Facebook is the ability to “share” your content with new interested ‘disciples’ If you will. Let me explain further. Just like someone anxious and eager to tell you about a new restaurant or a must-see movie, Facebook articles are commonly shared by friends among their own contact list on their ‘friends list’ …for the same reasons; they want their friends to know about new fun, engaging, important things, and the ancillary benefits are you pick up new views to your activities and events AND followers of your own to grow your own village. Content and activities are key. The old premise: if you tell 2 people and they each tell 2 new people, and those 4 tell 8 new people, you understand the drill. With diligent detail, you can grow and grow and grow your disciple list, and the benefit for foster care, homeless, feeding the poor; all the things God commands us to do, is well within the reach of everyone, as long as you are faithful to the discipline of engagement. It’s simple; the more you grow your contact list, the more you create a greater opportunity for more engagement, more volunteers, more event attendance, and a larger donor base. Here is a list of just the top 100 within our list, and, as I said, of the more than 400 in southern Florida we currently track. You are all doing a wonderfully incredible job with your content, so I hope this serves as some additional encouragement to get more active and even more engaged. Grow. The. Kingdom. Statistics are a wonderful marketing tool to see how we’re trending. I am grateful, Les Statistics for Engagement - Leslie J. Feldman - Publisher Acurate as of 4/14/2025. FACEBOOK FOLLOWERS 1 Church by the Glades 354,000 2 Florida International University 176,000 3 Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital 149,000 4 Florida Atlantic University 96,000 5 Christ Fellowship Church, PBG 70,000 6 Nova Southeastern University 65,000 7 Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale 57,000 8 Ocean’s Edge School 55,000 9 The Children’s Trust 55,000 10 Broward College 54,000 11 One Hope 53,000 12 Vous Church 41,000 13 Palm Beach Atlantic University 28,000 14 Calvary House 25,000 15 Good News Media Group 22,000 16 Harvest Bible Chapel 18,858 17 Potential Church 18,587 18 Cleveland Clinic Florida 17,521 19 Dan Marino Foundation 17,233 20 Feeding South Florida 16,253 21 Bonnet House Museum & Gardens 13,588 22 Greater Ft. Lauderdale COC 13,276 23 Place Of Hope 13,000 24 Journey Church 12,000 25 South Florida Bible College 11,000 26 Memorial Healthcare 10,581 27 4 Kids of South Florida 10,042 28 Honor Flight of South Florida 10,000 29 Kids in Distress 10,000 30 Wondherful 10,000 31 Holy Cross Health, Ft. Lauderdale 9,508 32 St. Thomas Aquinas H.S. 8,702 33 Christian Life Center 8,542 34 Miami Rescue Mission 8,530 35 Cross International 8,425 36 Habitat For Humanity, Broward 8,378 37 His House Children’s Home 8,330 38 Abundant Living Ministries 7,857 39 The Kings Academy 7,830 40 Urban League of Broward County 7,233 41 The Local Church 6,753 42 Urban Youth Impact 6,675 43 JM Family Enterprises 6,660 44 First Baptist Fort Lauderdale 6,544 45 Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church 6,508 46 Arc Broward 6,374 47 Generation Church 6,365 48 Speak UpFor Kids 5,603 49 Calvary Christian Academy, Ft. Lauderdale 5,573 50 Women in Distress, Broward 5,414 51 Junior Achievement of South Florida 5,391 52 Friends of Hugh Taylor Birch State Park 5,323 53 Moody Radio South Florida 5,205 54 Covenant House Florida 5,030 55 Leadership Broward Foundation 4,956 56 Coastal Community Church 4,786 57 Boys & Girls Club of Broward County 4,685 58 St. Andrew Catholic Church 4,022 59 The Shelter Naples 3,877 60 Potential Church, Cooper City 3,772 61 Plantation Baptist Church 3,740 62 Sheridan House Family Ministries 3,689 63 Hope South Florida 3,637 64 Mount Bethel Baptist 3,566 65 Broward Partnership For The Homeless 3,451 66 Center for Effective Philanthropy 3,399 67 Riverside Church 3,361 68 Broward Partnership for the Homeless 3,451 69 Restoration Bridge International 3,340 70 Community Foundation of Broward 3,149 71 4 KIDS Treasure Coast 3,098 72 Big Brothers Big Sisters of Broward 3,078 73 Temple Aron HaKodesh 3,031 74 Calvary Chapel North Miami 2,966 75 Calvary House For Women 2,939 76 The Crockett Foundation 2,902 77 Boca Raton Community Church 2,865 78 Rebuilding Together Broward County 2,855 79 Gateway Church of Fort Lauderdale 2,707 80 Children’s Harbor, Inc 2,702 81 Westminster Academy 2,694 82 Barbour South Florida 2,608 83 Highlands Christian Academy 2,568 84 Downtown Harbor Church 2,485 85 The Pantry of Broward 2,463 86 City Rev Church 2,424 87 Salvation Army of Broward 2,403 88 SAINTS 2,283 89 Miami & Broward Youth For Christ 2,243 90 Crossway Church 2,217 91 The Avenue Church 2,208 92 Cruciform Church 2,150 93 Parkridge Church 2,068 94 Church United 1,977 95 Vertical Church 1,970 96 Calvary Chapel Boynton Beach 1,952 97 Rio Vista Church 1,830 98 First Presbyterian Church Fort Lauderdale 1,821 99 Grace Community Church 1,803 100 15th Street Church of Christ 1,753
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