Social Media and the Changing Church

I once heard it said that while the Gospel message itself never changes, the ways to communicate the Gospel are forever changing and evolving. I have found this to be quite true in many ways over the years. One of the ways we have seen change in the realm of how we communicate is with the explosion of social media over the past 5 years. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google Plus, and so forth have exploded in popularity. Sadly, many churches have been slow to adapt to this trend. The question I have is – why? Granted, we are merely human and it is a tendency of our human nature to be uncomfortable with change at least on some level – but Jesus has challenged us and called us to go to where the people are at and make a difference for the Kingdom. Social media is where the people are at! Facebook is the new barber shop/beauty salon or neighborhood tavern where people congregate.

So if you are reading this and belong to SRWC, let me encourage you to use the social media tools at our disposal! Please use our website and offer suggestions how we can make it better. Please follow us on Twitter (@SRWC_Hickory). Please read, comment and “like” the church’s Facebook posts. The cool thing about that is that your comments and “likes” will show up in your Facebook news feed and you never know who can see that and how it can impact them!

If you are reading this and belong to another church family, let me encourage you to embrace social media if your local body isn’t doing so. Many people in my age group (35 and younger) are much less likely to even think about visiting a church if you don’t have an active and updated website and don’t embrace social media.

Having said all of this, while I don’t think this should be our primary source of communicating with each other or people outside the church, I do think it is a viable tool for ministry. It is certainly not something we should overlook, write off as silly, or feel that we need to apologize for. The world is a changing place and many ways, not so much for the good. We cannot afford to lose relevance in how we tell others the Good News of Christ!