Doing social media Christianly?

Social media love it or hate it is here to stay.  As with so much innovation and technology it has tremendous potential to good whilst also being something that can be used to do so much that is bad.  It is an easy medium in which to let your guard down and wound, be careless, fail to bear with, and be unloving or unthankful.  So I've been wondering how can we use social media well as churches and believers?

As a church we don't have a policy about how our staff, leaders and Sunday School teachers interact online, but here are some suggested guidelines that would help us all be wise in our interactions online which I'd include if we did:

Never miss a chance to say something positive.If you have a chance to tweet, update a status, “like” or comment on something great that’s happening, or that someone has said about Jesus, the church or serving, take it. Be yourself and be genuine. Don’t say stuff you don’t mean.  But do look for and take every opportunity you can to edify others and point them to places online that will potentially edify them.  In fact it may be worth doing an audit of your last ten posts or likes do they convey thankfulness?  Do they edify?

Think carefully before you publish.Be wise about what you say online. More than being viewed as a representative of your church, you represent Jesus to the world. As leaders, you are “servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God" (1 Cor 4:1). Take your calling seriously, and think through how your public comments, posts and “likes” will be perceived by others both inside and outside of the church. If you like it or share it, you endorse it. If in doubt, don’t.

Keep the big picture in mind.It can be helpful to conduct a self-review of your social media every few months. We post in isolated moments, but people can see the whole picture at any point. Are the majority of your posts negative, boastful, hyper-spiritual or venting? Do they portray you as always working and never playing or vice versa?  Do they represent real life or a life that looks stylised or spun?

Don’t use email for hard conversations or social media.Talking face to face minimises opportunity for misunderstanding and maximises the chances of understanding.  It contains so many things social media or email do not; inflection, intonation, body language and so on.  Just by committing to take time to see someone you convey something about your care for the person that a quick social media posting or email doesn't.  It also means that your exact words will not be copied and pasted out of context and forwarded to others.

Respond to accusers in private, not public.There have and will continue to be people who use social media to disparage the church and its leaders or mission. Arguing, maligning or even teaching in a public forum like Facebook, Twitter or a blog comment section is difficult. It is best to deal with that person in love, privately and as a friend according to scripture first before taking further action if necessary (see Matthew 18v15-20).

Your blog is not just your blog (or Twitter, Facebook or Instagram….)
People know you follow Jesus (if they don't that's a problem you need to address), and unfortunately they’ll attach your opinions and actions to Jesus and the church. When Paul describes us as Christ's ambassadors that applies to both when we are good ambassadors revealing his love and grace and holiness and when we are bad ambassadors screwing it up.  While no one would expect you to post a disclaimer on your social media, just be aware that people don’t separate your ideas and choice of activities from way you follow Jesus or lead a ministry.

…and your email is not just your email.It’s best to keep email from your work email related to just that: work. Gossip detracts from our goals and diminishes your influence. And email is your point of least control for private information — easy to pass on to others without your knowledge.

Pray for the reputation of God’s Church.Social media is a powerful tool to create and destroy influence. Pray that Satan will be limited in his power to claim it and use it, and that we can be a part of redeeming it for Christ.

A modern proverb?

"Image is nothing.  Thirst is everything.  Obey your thirst."  So went the advertising slogan for Sprite that I still remember decades later.  How far from the truth that is in our modern culture.  In our society image is everything and nothing else really matters.  Oh we may trumpet soundbites like 'Be true to yourself', 'Be the you you really want to be' and so on.  But they come with subtle small print, and the small print says only be true to yourself if that fits with societies values and norms, with the you society will accept.  Don't be true to yourself if you don't, hide, suppress, repress.

Image has become everything.  I've been watching the Olympics and amidst all the great sport and phenomenal athleticism and dedication I've been heartbroken to see athlete's vilified and victimised for not portraying the right image.  Not having your hand on your heart when you sing your anthem, letting disappointment show, not having the right hair, or look and so on.  If people don't fit in with our media massaged and manipulated view of norms or right then we jump all over them.  We seem to forget that these are real people dealing with real emotions and four years (or a life time) of dedication and expectation, hopes and dreams.  Let alone the more fundamental truth that these are people made in God's image.

It has struck me again whilst I have watched with a sense of sadness athletes being attacked on social media for not fitting the image, not doing the done thing, not meeting others expectations of how they should react, that it shouldn't surprise me at all.  It is what disciples of Jesus should expect everyday.  I think of Daniel and his friends taking a stand for their faith in Babylon and the pressure they faced for not fitting in, not conforming.  And then tragically I think of Esther who hides her faith and does conform, for whom image is everything, at least initially.  But then I am reminded of the grace of God that transformed a wretch like Esther to save his people.

And that challenge hits me again.  The call to stand out, the call to live having experienced and drunk deeply of the water of life that Christ brings and to hold that out to others.  Knowing that it is what they really long for no matter what society says.  That image doesn't matter as much as the reality for which God has made them.  And that as people made in the image of God I am called to loved each and everyone of them and call them back to that image redeemed in Christ.

How we've learnt to be be 'alone together'

I came across this when a friend recommended it as being worth a read; http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/opinion/sunday/the-flight-from-conversation.html?smid=tw-share  I think it brilliantly and insightfully captures our growing problem as technology enables us to communicate but as we withdraw from conversation and real relationships.

Its worth thinking about the long term implications of this for church too, can we carry out gospelling of one another via social media, mms, sms or fleeting contact?

The Gospel and Social Media

Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Bebo and so on have been some of the big developments of the last 5 years in terms of their impact on society.  But what does the gospel have to say about our use of them?  I think we need to be honest and say that there is potential for great good in social media, in terms of being able to stay in touch encourage people, show love and concern to people, share prayer requests, and simply begin to build friendship.  But as with anything in the world we live in there is also the potential for what is good to be twisted by sin.  Social Media can be used to wound, to manipulate, to boast, to fuel a temptation to self-centredness and or arrogance and pride.  So how ought to we to use social media, what does the gospel have to say about our engagement with one another through these tools? 

I'm just beginning to think this through and will post some thoughts now and probably some more refined ones later.  I'd love comments, thoughts and so on...

They have the potential to help build relationships but cannot be the sole basis for a friendship
I think there are lots of great possibilities that these tools open up for us to get to know one another and to begin to share likes, dislikes etc...  But ultimately they are not a real relationship or friendships.  That means that they are limited in their scope to do us good.  The Bible talks about gospel relationships as real honest open loving friendship which is not massaged to reflect a public persona but about loving the real person deeply.  This ought to mean we recognise social media as a tool to spread information, to keep in contact, but also recognise its limitations for building real gospel friendships.

They have the potential to be used sinfully
Interestingly I wonder if we are as careful about what we put on a social media site as we are about what we would say to people face to face.  I can't help wondering if the very nature of social media leads us to be less careful what we do with it.  Here are some areas where I think we ought to check our use of social media so that we do not sin:

Gossip - Social media thrives on gossip, it has become the new playground in those terms.  The gospel ought to be changing us so that we are not those who are known as gossips.

Manipulation - Social Media provides an opportunity to vent our feelings as never before.  We ought to ask ourselves why we are putting up statuses that reveal how we feel.  I'm not saying we ought not to be honest, but honesty in a real relationship face-to-face with those who we know love us deeply as brothers.  Rather than the comment about how low we feel which is 'fishing' for care or simply testing to see if someone cares.

Slander - You don't have to be on a social media site long before you see either in others, or sadly in yourself, the potential for slandering others be it someone in the public eye or just a friend.  Ephesians 4:31-32 would call on us to put aside slander along with malice and replace it with a tender hearted kindness to one another fuelled by the grace that we have experienced in Christ.  Maybe these verses ought to be taped to the top of our monitor so that we do not forget them when on-line.
 
Boasting - We don't tend to sit around over coffee at church or in our small groups and up date people on how well we have done this week, or how we succeeded at this or that.  Yet frequently that is what we do on social media sites.  Now there is a careful balance to be struck here, but I want to ensure in myself that I am not boasting in my ability but in the cross of Christ.

Pride - Is closely linked in with the previous danger, boasting in our achievements can lead to pride which we ought to be laying aside.

As I've been thinking about this I've been musing on James and wondering how it might be read in light of our social media context.  The Bible is relevant and applicable to just this subject:

'Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my friends, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. We all stumble in many ways. Those who are never at fault in what they say, post and tweet are perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.

When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal.  Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go.  Likewise, the tongue and typing fingers are small parts of the body, but make great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tweet, update and tongue also are a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by human beings, but no one can tame the tongue or social media. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
With the tongue, Facebook and Twitter we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness.  Out of the same mouth and keyboard come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be.  Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring?  My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.'

I'll post more thoughts on this later in the week as I think about it further but for now I want to careful consider my use of social media in light of its potential to lead to into sin almost unawares.