Have you seen this image before? It's currently the cover photo on Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook profile. Dated September 24, 2013, it shows the friendship connections made through Facebook on a global scale. I'm sure it's out of date as I write this entry 6 months later, but I think it makes a serious case for the presence of the church on Facebook and other notable social media platforms.
But I'm not just talking about your church's FB page - which every church should have by the way, it's a free website for crying out loud - but I'm also thinking of how we-the-people-who-are-the-Body-of-Christ inhabit this "third space".
Sunday we discussed Micah 6:8, one of the easiest scriptures/commandments from the Lord to remember there is. Do justice, love mercy, walk humbly with your God. Short, simple, to the point. The Gospel in a nutshell, really. But how do we do that on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and the like? We Christians love to dispense various brands of justice on social media don't we? We're quick to judge and share those judgement.
And people are quick to unfollow those that do. A click and you're done. That's it. I have 871 'friends' on FB (I'm sure many of you have more), accrued over nearly 10 years of usage. That's quite the potential reach, especially if you count the worlds of people that each of my FB friends also reach. But we're all just a click away from being unsubscribed to if we're offensive, bully, or generally take things too far.
Right now, there are some 1.26 billion Facebook users out there, many of whom waiting to have the love of Christ to be revealed to them. Facebook is a global fellowship, how are you like Jesus there? Do you just seek justice? Or do you love mercy as well on social media?
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