Jesus doesn’t need to be, nor does He want to be, on your Facebook wall. Nor will God do you a huge favor if you repost it to your wall. Whether or not you are ashamed of the Gospel is not dependent on the reposting of what you saw on your timeline. Salvation and Twitter have no relationship with each other.
I love social media. Social Networking is an incredible tool. I have had an account with Facebook since it was only available to college students. I have had the opportunity to see how this new medium has evolved.
Social media has the capability to do incredible things, but there are limits to its capacity. Social media cannot replace our actual relationships. Evangelizing on social media is not enough. Look no further than Jesus to realize this very important fact.
Jesus’ ministry was an investment into people. Jesus invested in those who were around Him. When picking His crew, He picked men who confounded the conventional wisdom of the day. Frequently, Jesus spent time with those who society either forgot or reviled. In other words, Jesus got His hands dirty.
This is our example. If we call ourselves Christians, then we embrace the spirit behind the meaning of the word. The term “Christian” literally means “little Christ” and was originally used in a derogatory way. Like in all things, God takes the term Christian and makes it into something new. He takes an insult and turns it into our mission.
It is for that reason that our call to impact the world extends beyond tweets, statuses, and updates. Our call to impact the world is to minister to the figurative and literal unwashed and unloved and that is frequently not done through social media. That is done through actual relationships, involving actual conversations, and actual physical contact and not virtual ones.
It is not hard to see why there is a plethora of the pictures, statuses and other posts declaring your allegiance to Jesus. I guess my question is this: Who are you declaring that fact to? My guess is that most, if not all, of your social media followers share your convictions. So declaring that to fellow Christians seems a little redundant.
Sharing your experience on how Jesus impacted your life is a message for those who are longing for the sweet message of the Gospel. Social media is not the most effective way to do that. Real life relationships are. Social media is, has and will always be a supplement for our actual relationships and will never serve as a replacement.
Jesus does not want to be on your Facebook wall. He wants to be in your life.