Social Media & Mission // #Write31Days // Day 30
Ok So I’m a blogger, of course I’m going to rave about Social media. It is a passion of mine. I’ve written about it before here and here and here, here on a Christian Practice of Internet use and here on a short guide to soc med in the church, and plenty of other places too! But listen up people, the church needs to embrace social media – it was referred to as new media but it’s not new anymore! the world has embraced it and we need to as well if we want to reach people.
So whatever you are doing, whether you are a church, starting a new initiative, planning an event, get a Facebook page, post some tweets, it will get the word out there and feed into that all important communication which I mentioned a few days ago. It’s not difficult and if you don’t know where to start ask someone who does.
One of my fave people right now is Pope Francis (@pontifex). On the World Day of Communications last year, he said felt the internet was a gift from God, when referring to its benefits and possibilities! He asked also:
How, then, can communication be at the service of an authentic culture of encounter? What does it mean for us, as disciples of the Lord, to encounter others in the light of the Gospel?
So then there’s a challenge to us, and in my essay that I wrote about here I asked myself how does a christian use Social Media any different to anyone else? How can we enable others to meet with Jesus through our online use? Of course being authentic, not hiding our faith, being open to talking (or writing!) about it is key but more than that, I think need to be intentional about it.
So in mission, are we using soc med to share what we are doing? are we being overt about our faith? I mean it’s not just getting out into the community, what about our own friends and family too? Are they seeing us giving glory to God online and with boldness?
And here’s another question, how many people have you ‘friended’ or ‘followed’ online who you’ve met through a missional outreach? Are you actually forming friendships as you would with others?Actually soc med is a great way to interact with new friends in mission as it’s pretty non threatening. They don’t have to give you a phone number and also have the option to unfollow/block you if they are worried! That can actually be a real concern for some people, especially the most vulnerable.
And more than that how about a soc med campaign? For 2 years we have run ‘Share the Hope’ through Advent, an evangelistic campaign run solely online to encourage people to think about hope in a very busy time of year. This (left) was a quote from last year. Jesus is for everyone, exactly that! and if we want our social media use to be missional we must remember that and meet people where they are at. And for many where they are at is online!
A few weeks ago I wrote this:
One of the biggest reasons to reach ‘out there’ – to outside our church walls – is that so many people just wouldn’t step foot over the threshold of a church. So how will we share the Gospel if we don’t get ‘out there’? And of course for some, coming to church is more than a mental barrier it’s a physical one.
and this:
Isn’t our mission to reach ‘all nations’ with the message of Jesus? Well here’s a very 21st century way of doing just that…
Do we need any other reason to use social media now?
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