Many of us connect with family and friends on Facebook.

Some churches have joined that trend. A local church says as its number of Facebook friends grows, so does its membership.

Grace Road Church began its mission just one year ago, with Pastor Kevin Maloney leading the way.

"We started in Kevin’s house just meeting, just 10 to 15 people in his basement for a while,” said Shelly Zastrow, member.

It went from that to 175 to 250 people who now attend Grace Road. Pastor Kevin said a major reason for the growth is social media sites like Facebook.

That is why Joshua Viola started attending.

"I knew Kevin, but somebody had sent me a group request on Facebook so that's how I got to know them to check them out,” said Viola, who regularly attends.

With 843 Facebook friends and counting, Maloney said he uses social media sites to spread God's word to anyone he comes across in cyberspace.

"We look at the bible and we see Jesus going into the world that people lived in. Today the world that people live in, in large parts, are social network sites,” said Maloney.

Maloney not only uses Facebook to reach people, but members actually began forming as a Facebook group before they even met.

"We started with a core group of 10 families from Victory Baptist Church in Henrietta and then immediately formed a Facebook group,” Maloney said. "We don't believe the church can happen just online, so we tried to set up face-to-face meetings with everybody who was interested.”

Church members say they will continue using social media to connect with each other and many more people beyond the congregation's seats.

"We get e-mails weekly about upcoming events and sermon ideas. I think that does really drive people. I think the media network is amazing now. How you can just get all that information out there through the touch of a button. It’s on my phone so I’m definitely plugged in," said Zarstrow.

As membership continues to grow, Grace Road will be ready to make room.

Grace Road Church