Social media isn’t for everyone though. If you lust after the favorites and retweets of others or you can’t avoid berating “friends” on Facebook, you ought to repent and sprint away from social media altogether.
But if you can manage to engage on social media platforms without falling into habitual sin around the approval of others or otherwise, I beg you to steward the gospel in the digital space.
It’s a strange burden, but I think it’s an important one.
3 Ways to Redeem the Medium
It feels as though abandoning social media would be abandoning an opportunity for stewardship.
So, how can Christians redeem social media as a medium? How might we use what so many use for evil for the good purposes of God? A few brief thoughts:
1) Create encouraging dialogue.
If you enjoy a blog post, find the person on Twitter and tell them so.
If you see a friend on Facebook having a rough day, shoot a message to them telling them you’re praying for them (and actually do it).
So much negative dialogue permeates social media, it could use some gospel encouragement from those who steward the Good News.
2) Share trustworthy resources.
Share the content of Christian blogs or other websites whose content you trust.
So many great Christian organizations and Christian leaders are blogging or create other kinds of content with great frequency. There is no shortage of faithful, trustworthy content online. Share it or create some of it yourself.
3) Build sanctifying relationships.
This statement would have sounded weird 10 or 15 years ago, but: I have a number of sanctifying, God-glorifying friendships today that started on social media someplace.
Social media platforms are great places to find like-minded brothers and sisters in Christ with whom we may partner in our Great Commission work. If you’re on social media, make friends with people and point each other to Jesus.
Social media is a volatile beast. It is not to be taken lightly or to be underestimated as a force of evil.
But, if you’re like me and cannot neglect the strange burden of social media, take some intentional steps to shining the light in the darkness.
This article originally appeared here.
