The Christian Ghetto and Social Media
“Every good idea must have a similar, but yet inferior Christian version.” Unfortunately, I think that’s a sad reality these days. I have lost count of the times I was asked if my company, The A Group, could help a church or ministry to create a Christian version of Facebook. Seriously. Should every church have its own alternative to Facebook?
For some un-Biblical reason, we Christians find the need to abandon our culture and gather together in what I call the “Christian Ghetto.” The Christian Ghetto is a place where you go to hang out with your Christian friends, fill up a website with Christian pictures and Christian videos of lots of happy people, bad preaching and youth camp promos. There’s not much witnessing and shedding of light in the ghetto since everyone is already convinced and the place is way too bright as is.
I understand the need for closed networks within several difference facets of ministry. For example, in managing small groups who need to connect in privacy or resourcing ministries that deal with evangelistic strategies where an open discussion in Facebook, would undermine their effectiveness.
So should the Church abandon social media altogether? Absolutely not. The church should redeem it . Christians are already there in millions strong among their unchurched friends. Instead of trying to pull your people out of Facebook, Twitter, Myspace (Ok, there’s no one left there) or whatever the social media du jour is, your church should develop strategies to engage, inspire and create dialog within these networks. We should resource our people with tools for integration and not segregation. We should take our Christian content into every part of the web we’re allowed to go. Go where the darkness is and shed light. My friends Tami Heim and Tony Birdsong wrote a great book about how to do just that, @Sticky Jesus.
I say let’s break up the Christian Ghetto mindset we Christians tend to have and lets become more intentional in our social media outreach.
What’s your take?
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