{"id":30876,"date":"2022-09-10T15:08:04","date_gmt":"2022-09-10T20:08:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/5-ways-pastors-can-equip-their-congregations-to-use-social-media\/"},"modified":"2022-09-10T15:08:04","modified_gmt":"2022-09-10T20:08:04","slug":"5-ways-pastors-can-equip-their-congregations-to-use-social-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/5-ways-pastors-can-equip-their-congregations-to-use-social-media\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Ways Pastors Can Equip Their Congregations to Use Social Media"},"content":{"rendered":"
Surface photo – Unsplash <\/p>\n

By Chris Martin<\/em> <\/p>\n

Social media is no longer \u201cnew.\u201d Pastors and church leaders can no longer avoid social media as some have for the better part of a decade because they thought it was a fad that would go away. <\/p>\n

In fact, it has a greater influence in many churches today than the pastors and lay leaders themselves. This makes sense, doesn\u2019t it? Data suggests people spend at least two hours a day on social media, but people in our churches may only spend that much time in an entire week engaging in church ministries. Of course social media and the vanity fair of fancies it puts in front of our faces would be more influential to our people.<\/p>\n

Before we explore how pastors can equip their congregations to use social media wisely, let\u2019s admit up front pastors aren\u2019t often very good at using it wisely themselves.<\/p>\n

How might pastors who have corralled their relationship with social media into some degree of maturity lead their congregations to do the same? We could explore dozens of ways, but let\u2019s look at five.<\/p>\n

1. Model a healthy relationship with social media<\/strong><\/h3>\n

No one is expected to have a perfect relationship with social media. It\u2019s pretty much impossible. While pastors shouldn\u2019t feel like they have to handle social media perfectly before they can talk about it with their church members, it\u2019s wise for pastors to evaluate their relationship with social media before they start initiating difficult conversations with church members who use social media in foolish, quarrelsome ways.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

It\u2019s wise for pastors to evaluate their relationship with social media before they start initiating difficult conversations with church members who use social media in foolish, quarrelsome ways. \u2014 @ChrisMartin17 Click To Tweet <\/p>\n

Ask fellow pastors or your spouse to evaluate your relationship with social media. Maybe you\u2019re not starting fights and cursing people out on Facebook, but maybe you scroll Twitter too much or you\u2019ve been quietly led astray by a YouTuber\u2019s conspiracy theories. Ask people close to you to honestly evaluate your relationship with social media. Make improvements, and then encourage your church to do the same.<\/p>\n

2. Study social media to better understand it yourself<\/strong> <\/h3>\n

I correspond with many pastors who, by their own admission, simply don\u2019t understand social media. They confess they have held onto the mentality that \u201csocial media is just a fad\u201d for far too long. They now see the unmatched influence in their churches, and they don\u2019t know what to do. Of course, the best time to start studying and learning about social media was over a decade ago, but the second-best time is now.<\/p>\n

The best time to start studying and learning about social media was over a decade ago, but the second-best time is now. \u2014 @ChrisMartin17 Click To Tweet <\/p>\n

I recently published a book called Terms of Service<\/em> that explains the evolution of the internet and how we got where we are today with social media. That may be helpful for you. But read other books, too, like The Shallows<\/em> by Nicholas Carr or Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Account Right Now<\/em> by Jaron Lanier. Those books, written by non-Christians, are helpful for understanding the social internet and how it influences our lives. Start with one of these, or all of them, and you\u2019ll have a great baseline knowledge of social media.<\/p>\n

3. Encourage embodied, personal community over virtual community<\/strong> <\/h3>\n

I am grateful to God that livestream technologies have made it easier for Christians to participate in their local churches through the various waves of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, I fear there are unintentional consequences of this common grace\u2014one being some of us may decide virtual participation in the church is preferable to embodied participation in the local church. We must not value virtual church participation as highly as embodied participation.<\/p>\n

As you lead your churches into an increasingly virtual future, encourage the embodied experience of the local church over the virtual consumption of Christian content. \u2014 @ChrisMartin17 Click To Tweet <\/p>\n

Seeing people face-to-face and in-person is vastly richer than consuming sermon content on the internet. Virtual Bible studies are fine, but they\u2019re not nearly as good as getting together with men or women in living rooms and coffee shops. As you lead your churches into an increasingly virtual future, encourage the embodied experience of the local church over the virtual consumption of Christian content. Both are valuable, but the latter cannot supplant the former. We must not let it.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
See also  3 Practical Steps for Reaching the Mission Field in Your Neighborhood<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

4. Remind church members that social media is real life<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Have you ever had a conversation with someone talking about the internet and they say something to the effect of, \u201cWell that\u2019s what happens on the internet, but in\u202freal life\u2026\u201d with \u201creal life\u201d meaning \u201cwhat happens offline\u201d?<\/p>\n

A pastor told me a story about a woman in his church who posted on one of her social media accounts that she was having a rough week, explaining in some ambiguous details what was going on. Someone from the church saw the social media post, recognized it as a possible call for help, and suggested church leadership reach out to the woman to check in with her and see what the church could do to love her and come alongside her.<\/p>\n

How we act on the internet is how we act when we think no one is looking\u2014even though the entire world may be able to see us. \u2014 @ChrisMartin17 Click To Tweet <\/p>\n

When a church leader who knew the woman reached out to her, the church member responded in a rather shocking way. She <\/em>was offended a church leader reached out and tried to help, citing what she posted on social media. Why was the church member offended? In short, though her social media profile was public and available for the world to see, she told the church leaders, \u201cI posted asking for encouragement from my online community, not my offline community.\u201d The woman also expressed, \u201cMy online life is private,\u201d and she said it shouldn\u2019t be of concern to anyone at the church.<\/p>\n

We forget, like the church member in distress, who we are and what we do on the internet is as much a part of our \u201creal lives\u201d as what we do when we\u2019re at church or going to the grocery store. In fact, I would argue that it\u2019s a\u202fbetter picture\u202fof who we\u202freally\u202f<\/em>are than when we are at church or the grocery store because often, how we act on the internet is how we act when we think no one is looking\u2014even though the entire world may be able to see us.<\/p>\n

5. Establish a culture of accountability<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Finally, I want to encourage pastors to establish a culture of accountability in their churches. A culture in which it\u2019s normal, not taboo, to get together with fellow church members and talk about how we fail, sin, and need help to become more like Christ. Social media can blind us to the ways we misuse it, and we often need guides to help us navigate how to use social media in a Christlike way. A culture of accountability in the local church makes it easier to call one another out for foolish social media activity.<\/p>\n

Social media can blind us to the ways we misuse it, and we often need guides to help us navigate how to use social media in a Christlike way. \u2014 @ChrisMartin17 Click To Tweet <\/p>\n

Social media is at the center of our culture right now. It touches everything, and it\u2019s well past time that the church pays attention to it and how it\u2019s affecting the church. Because of our sin, we will not stumble into a right relationship with social media. If we hope to use social media wisely and encourage church members to do the same, we need to be intentional.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

Chris Martin<\/h2>\n

@ChrisMartin17<\/p>\n

\n

Chris Martin is a content marketing editor at Moody Publishers and a social media, marketing, and communications consultant. He writes regularly for his newsletter\u00a0Terms of Service, and has published a book by the same name with B&H Publishing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n