Did you know that the number of social media users equates to almost almost 57% of the world’s total population? And despite all the political hype about ‘fake news’ and social media censorship, that number has jumped by more than 13% from this time last year – we’re talking half a billion new users in a 12-month period!
In this week’s episode of Ask, I consider whether Christians should use today’s Roman Road – social media – to do evangelism. There’s so much more to say about the topic of social media in general, and as it relates to evangelism specifically. While I barely scratch the surface in this episode, I trust it will provide some food for thought.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
G’day everyone, Dave Deane here, and our question for the week is: Should Christians use social media to do evangelism?
This is a timely question – yes, because we live in an age of internet, information and communication technology – but more particularly because the COVID pandemic has seen a rise in social media use over the last 18 months as the world has retreated into social hibernation.
To give you some stats, a Digital 2021 July Global Statshot Report revealed that:
The number of global mobile phone users equates to just under 67% of the world’s total population (and the rate of increase is growing, with almost 10 million new numbers a month).
The number of internet users equates to almost 61% of the world’s total population (and here, again, the rate of increase is registering year-on-year growth of close to 6%).
And the total number of social media users equates to almost 57% of the world’s total population. And despite all the political hype about ‘fake news’ and social media censorship, that number has jumped by more than 13% from this time last year. To quantify that, we’re talking more than half a billion new users across the 12 months from July 2020 to July 2021! That, to my mind, speaks to the impact COVID has had on social media use and, in turn, the impact of social media use on you and I, today.
Now, there is a lot that I would like to say about social media more generally – you know, ‘The Social Dilemma’ and just how, exactly, social media is impacting us, our thinking, our ethics, our relationships, our attention, our privacy, our power, our consumption, our identities, our sense of space, securities, and availability… but that would be a several part lecture series, and this week’s question is much more narrow anyway.
Should Christians use social media to do evangelism?
Well, with these kinds of statistics we may well ask: ‘do Christians even have a choice in the matter?’ I mean, because social media has become such an integral part of contemporary society – from news to politics to language to personal relationships, even ‘online church’ – it’s completely transformed the way we communicate, use, interpret and apply information today. So, anyone with a message to tell, if they aren’t using the highways and byways of today’s technologically established platforms of communication, well… their message won’t be heard.
And at the end of the day, do Christians have a message that we want others to hear? Yeah, absolutely. Matthew 28:19-20, Jesus said to His followers: “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
By the way, that call to “go” isn’t just a call for missionaries to pack up and leave to a far-off nation. The Greek word for “go” is a participle that literally means “as you go.” In other words, as you go about your daily lives you are to be making disciples in both word and deed as we live out and proclaim the hope that we have within. The call to “go” is not a one-time event, it is a call to a lifestyle dedicated to the preservation and proclamation of the Gospel.
And if we need a model for what this looks like, well, we have it. This is precisely what the book of Acts records for us as the good news of Jesus spread from Judea, Samaria right to the ends of the earth eventually ‘Christianizing’ the mighty Roman Empire.
I mean, take the Apostle Paul, for example. He launched several missionary journeys by boat across the Mediterranean by foot, on horseback, along Roman Roads – which were, essentially the first century version of the internet when you think about it, in that it was the technological platform for information and communication. Paul took up the call to tell the world about the forgiveness of sins in and through the person and work of Jesus, and he used whatever technological, written and/or verbal means and mediums at his disposal to get that message out.
That’s true of the early church, it also true of the history of the Church as we see how, say, the invention of the Printing Press in the 15th century revolutionised public literacy in general, and Biblical literacy in particular; the 18th century industrial revolution, which allowed the gospel to charter unreached people groups; the 20th century use of television and radio sparking mass revivals; and now, the late 20th early 21st century adoption of the internet, which has exploded the speed, scale and simultaneity of Christian evangelism in a way that the early Church right through to the Billy Graham’s could have never imagined.
Of course, and again, with all this there are many dangers to be aware of, but the response to the dangers and pitfalls of technology and social media is not to withdraw into an Agrarian-type existence. We are told in Isaiah that God has given His people ‘as a light to the nations, that [His] salvation may reach to the end of the earth” (Is 49:6).
Friends… the Great Commission in Matthew 28 is a part of the Creation Mandate in Genesis 1, where all of humanity is called to steward all of creation which today, includes, technological innovations like social media. And the key word is stewardship: ‘follow,’ ‘share,’ ‘like,’ ‘subscribe,’ ‘post,’ ‘tweet,’ ‘tag’ – everyone has a responsibility here in how they use social media, but Christians in particular should resist the tendency to be ‘used by’ social media as we commit everything we do to the glory of God (Psa. 37:5-6). In other words: have your Facebook, but if it ‘has’ you? Turn it off.
So, Should Christians use social media to do evangelism?
My short answer is: yes!
Christians of today find ourselves with an unprecedented opportunity to leverage social media for glory of Jesus Christ in the preaching of His good news of salvation.
Our mission field may not be Jerusalem, Judea or Samaria;
Our mediums may not be a Roman Road or parchment or Papyrus
But our message remains the same: “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10)
So go, tell it on the mountains
Over the hills and everywhere
And don’t neglect the mission field
Of the online public square.
