Being socially
responsible
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Steve Stockman looks at how we should conduct ourselves on social media, aiming to be the faithful disciples Jesus has called us to be.
very day it seems there is another headline about social media abuse. Politicians, sportsmen and women, journalists, pop stars are all open to all kinds of anonymous online attacks and threats. As well as this, we have been aware for some years of the teenage mental health problems associated with social media. Cyberbullying and comparing their lives with others have put a stress on teens that former generations didn’t have to face. It would be easy to just ban social media altogether, but let us take a deep breath. New forms of communication have been shuddering the foundations of societies since the first picture was carved onto the wall of a cave, or a word could be written down, or the printing press was invented, or the radio, the telephone, the television and the world wide web. At every stage there has been immediate suspicion, a time of coming to terms with and finding social behaviour patterns to deal with it all. Of course during our coronavirus year we have suddenly realised that social media is not of the devil! Video chat apps, broadcast platforms, video search engines, or plain social media might instead have been a God-given gift. They have been a blessed resource to creatively
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Herald Spring 2021
hold congregations together in the absence of gatherings. As the shuddering of social media impact slows, we need new behavioural patterns honed and modelled and delivered. The church has perhaps been slow to get to grips with this. We could benefit from a focus on the importance of social media discipleship. In my first week on Facebook in 2006, I remember saying to my wife Janice over tea, “You know there will come a time when we will need a Facebook pastor.” My very first connections had me pastor one friend, share apologetics with another and become involved in some evangelism with someone I didn’t really know at all. I knew then that there was a huge potential in this exciting, if dangerous, new world. Fifteen years later, when we eventually come out of Covid-19 lockdown, Fitzroy as a congregation is imagining how we can reap the potential of social media. How can we reach, engage and disciple a world seeking God? The social media
God’s Word made flesh in Twitter’s 280 characters should shine with a humble posture.
pastor is a whole lot closer to reality and many churches are already doing it. As someone who spends hours on social media every day I have created my own discipleship pillars. Based on Paul’s letter to the Philippians, I hold to four principles that I try to be consciously aware of as I engage. I have learned a lot about social media engagement over the years just as I hope I have matured in all aspects of my spiritual life.
Insight Paul prays for the Philippians: “And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ…” (Philippians 1:9–11). Love and knowledge and depth of insight. Trying to line up those three
