“…we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well” – 1 Thessalonians 2:8
I am going to say something that I never thought I would say only three years ago: social media is a powerful tool for gospel sharing opportunities. The dangers of social media are well documented, from the harm it can cause to our mental health, and, left unguarded, even our spiritual health. This is not a post about that, I recommend Tony Reinke’s book “12 Ways Your Phone is Changing You” to tackle the issues on boundaries. Right from the start, I’d like to highlight that if you do not use social media out of personal choice, that’s ok, I hope this article will not feel like an attack on your choice. That being said, let me make my case.
How my view of social media changed
This is my own journey with social media – I am a millennial, which means I was there from the beginning – for Myspace, Bebo and Msn if anyone remembers those. Then came Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat and more recently, TikTok. And for the most part I was not a massive social media fan, I used it as do many without much thought, and I am pretty sure I often stated that instagram was for vain people. So what changed?
I became a Women’s Football Chaplain, with the role of providing emotional support for players. And in that role, I found that very rarely would players actually open up about what was going on in their lives. I knew I needed to build relationships, but how was I going to do that without proper conversation?
It was also clear from body language that their perspective of Christianity was not necessarily a good one. So a fellow Chaplain had suggested using social media as a barrier breaker – “they get to see my nonsense and I get to see theirs” she said. I gave it a go by sharing a bit more of my life through social media – the boring, the mundane, the funny, the silly, the deep and the meaningful.
Looking back, I can genuinely say that this played a major part in removing barriers and building relationships in ways that even I had not anticipated. I have continued to use my social media in this way with the hope of a similar impact in other areas of life, and I hope you will consider this for yourself too. It is worth pointing out that for the purposes of this article, I am mainly referring to Facebook and Instagram when I make reference to social media.
What does social media have to do with evangelism?
So what does this have to do with sharing the gospel? Quite a lot when you live in a post-Christian society. Not so much in evangelism itself which is specifically about actually sharing the gospel, but in pre-evangelism. By that, I mean intentionally creating an environment that even allows for an evangelistic conversation. As life gets busier, it gets harder to share the gospel – it’s harder to find time to meet up, but it’s also harder to have any meaningful conversation, never mind a spiritual conversation.
It can feel discouraging as there is often little or no interest or perhaps even a hostile response. But this is not unusual in a society where Christianity is often misunderstood or misrepresented. In this kind of context, we need to correct misconceptions, show what the Christian life is really about through shared lives and look for opportunities for more meaningful conversations. So here are three ways that social media is able to help in doing just that, when used intentionally:
1) An opportunity to share your life
It is often said that our first experience of something shapes how we view it in the long run. If your first experience of a hockey match was being clattered in P.E, you will, as many of my friends do, associate hockey with danger, pain and injury. Likewise, if your only experience of Christianity was negative, or more commonly, only what is portrayed in the media, you will perceive Christians in that light. The reality is that many people in our culture today have negative preconceived ideas about what a Christian is and what their life is like. So the simple act of sharing your life can shift some of these misconceptions.
Ideally doing this in real life, over a meal, a walk, and real life conversations, but before that is even a possibility, social media offers the opportunity for you to share a glimpse of your life. This is why I would encourage you to use social media differently from how the world uses it – share more than just the highlights. It’s not about putting the best you forward, but an extension of the real you. And as the Gospel shapes how you live all of life, they will notice. They might never comment, but they are watching what you put out and building a picture. What will they see? It will likely not be what they expected.
2) An opportunity to know people better
Social media is also an opportunity to get to know people better. Even though most people only share their ‘life highlights’, they also share things that give glimpses into their lives: emotional tributes to lost loved ones, fundraisers showing the things they are passionate about and they might even share their opinion on particular issues.
This is helpful because if you want to have spiritual conversations with people, you need to start by having meaningful conversations generally, and if you want to have meaningful conversations, you need to get to know people. Social media will not tell the full story, but it will give helpful insight that can help you know understand people’s worldviews and can set up the stage for better and richer conversations. This ties into my final point.
3) A conversation starter
Most Christians I have spoken to would conclude that people in society today are not interested in spiritual conversations. But I have come to realise that it’s not that people aren’t interested, but they don’t know how to. They have never had to think deeply about things, or if they have, have not had the context in which to share their thoughts. In a post-truth culture where a difference of opinion can equate to intolerance, many will err on the side of caution and avoid any conversations that might get them labelled as intolerant.
Most people have settled for the safety net of small talk and banter. If you live in Scotland you are likely fluent in these, humour is often used to deal and cope with anything. But of course, people are made in the image of God, they have souls, they have depth, they have opinions and passions and in the right environment, in the right conversation, that comes to the fore.
Social media allows you to tap into some of this and start a conversation about something they are passionate about. I find that the more I talk deeply about the things other people care about, the more they get used to that kind of conversation. They may then get comfortable enough to ask you about what you think, why you think it and this opens up doors to share the Christian worldview, which opens up the opportunity to share the gospel.
I realise this may sound simplistically methodic, much depends on your context and your own stage of life. But if you do already use social media, I hope this gives you some food for thought about how you can use it more intentionally in order to pave the way for sharing the gospel. I talk more practically about how Christians can use social media effectively on my YouTube channel. You can also read more about why our stories are worth telling on social media and how that be done to God’s glory.
