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Recently, Facebook launched a pretty big new feature called Subscribe.  Here’s how Facebook describes it:

You've always been subscribed to friends. Now you can keep up with journalists, celebrities, political figures and other people you’re interested in too. You can get their public updates in your News Feed by going to their profile and clicking on the Subscribe button.

In essence it’s like an RSS feed that shows up in your Facebook feed and it changes how public figures can use Facebook.  Instead of creating a separate fan Page, a person can keep their personal profile and allow anyone to subscribe to updates they publically post while keeping other posts private for just their friends.  Users can get updates from the person their subscribed to without actually being their friend.  It’s kind of like Twitter or Google+ where you can follow people without them following you back.  So if you’re a pastor on Facebook, this could affect you. Eventually, people who have a fan Page will be able to merge it with their personal profile page. 

While Subscribe may change the way you personally use Facebook, it shouldn’t change your church Page.  Here’s what Facebook says:

If your goal is to represent your business, brand, or product on Facebook, create a Page. Pages let you engage with people on Facebook, and offer tools (like multiple admin features and insights) that help you manage and track engagement. 

If your goal is to share updates from your personal profile with a broader audience, allowing subscribers is a good option. When you allow subscribers, anyone can subscribe and get your public updates in News Feed, even if you're not friends on Facebook.

So it’s a little confusing, but I think it’s Facebook’s way of trying to add features that already exist in Twitter and Google+.   Basically, you now friend someone you know personally and subscribe to a public figure you’d like to get updates from.  If you’re looking to take advantage of Subscribe, here are a few things to know.

• If you are friends with someone on Facebook, you’re automatically subscribed to them.
• You can turn on the Subscribe feature for your own profile by going to your page, clicking on the Subscriptions button on the left side.  You will be prompted from there.  (Or you can go to this Facebook webpage.)  Remember this makes your account more public by letting people get your updates without being your friend.  Clicking on the Subscriptions tab also lets you see who you’re subscribed to and who’s subscribed to you.
• You can adjust the type of updates you get from someone you’re subscribed to.  Hover over the Subscribed button on the top right corner of someone’s profile.  You’ll be given options of how to tailor the subscription.  The default is to get “most updates.”

• If you change your mind, you can disable the Subscribe function for your account.  Click on the Subscribers tab (different than the Subscriptions tab) on the left under your profile picture.  Then click on the setting button on the upper right of the Subscribe page.  There are several options there.

• You can block a person from being a subscriber, just like you can block them from being a friend.  This can be done in the main privacy settings through the account tab at the top right of your page.
• When you’re posting an update, you can select who it goes to right below the status box next to the ‘post’ button.  You can choose public, which goes to everyone or friends which goes just to your friends.  There are other custom options as well.

For a full rundown on Subscribe, check out the official Facebook FAQ page or the Subscribe page.