Mark Zuckerberg announced more changes to the Facebook experience at Thursday’s annual f8 developers conference in San Francisco.

The revamped profile as featured in this video is called “Timeline.”

Media is now an important part of Facebook’s strategy to maintain its position as the world’s No. 1 social network.

The new features will tightly integrate music, movies and other media.

Facebook’s new tools include: the music initiative, onsite viewing, and Open Graph, a platform for developers to exchange information and the heart of Facebook’s effort to become the social center of the web.

One digital news source put Facebook at the forefront of a paradigm shift already underway.

Time will tell if the new features deliver as promised.

For Christian media organizations the Facebook changes signify the continuing shift of audiences and every sector of society into social and digital media.

I found three implications and opportunities for gospel media in the Facebook changes.

1. Partnering increases engagement and revitalizes businesses. Facebook is shrewd and smart in the whole notion of bringing partners and even competitors together. With Timeline, they are working with movie and TV partners, music and publisher partners to bring in their content while they focus on what they do best – the social experience. For many of the companies getting on board, the goal is to revitalize and extend their platforms. One exec said that partnering with Facebook could help the company grow to twice its current size.

The more Christian organizations create Great Commission partnerships, the more people will discover the gospel, the more likely they will be to engage. If they are more engaged they are more likely to financially support the initiatives that God is using to bless their lives. It’s time to partner up. God will bring the increase.

Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much. Luke 16:10

2. Integration enhances experience. Facebook shines at integrating media with experience. Their new capabilities not only integrate streaming music and video but, for the first time, add-in real-time interaction among users. Click on the name of a song or movie or begin listening or watching in real time with your friend.

The entire gospel experience is meant to be a shared experience. That’s why social and digital media are a natural for ministry. The opportunity for Christian IT architects is to connect the dots between creating content for new media, digital distribution, and the real-time sharing of Christian’s lives with seekers.

Efficient technologies now allow the creation of entirely new ways to help people find gospel oriented content to watch, listen to or read. Through social media, those people can broadcast what they are watching and the exciting things God is doing in their lives to others through various apps. People could then add apps to their online profiles to show what they are learning and experiencing. When all those pieces are integrated into a holistic ministry platform, we could see mind-blowing momentum in digital missions.

We loved you so much that we shared with you not only God’s Good News but our own lives, too. 1 Thessalonians 2:8

3. Reinventing accelerates growth. Facebook is always reinventing and moving fast. Pushing toward the future. They have a vision and it keeps them growing. 800 million and counting…

Imagine what could happen if Christian media organizations were restructured to embrace change, variation, newness and innovation. The more we innovate and let go of whatever holds us back, the faster we can grow. There is an inherent driver for this innovation. It is Jesus Christ himself and the consuming passion for using media to share the gospel with as many people as we can before He returns.

See! He is coming in the clouds. Every eye will see Him. Even the men who killed Him will see Him. All the people on the earth will cry out in sorrow because of Him. Revelation 1:7