Sound Church

Do you remember life before the internet? Sometimes it can be difficult to remember how we shopped, traveled, monitored our world, communicated or even dated before the information super highway.

Near the end of the 20th century, our lives were completely changed by the internet revolution. The 21st century brought revolution to the world-wide web itself, the social media revolution. Social media did not just change the way in which we use the internet, but social media has been cited as a catalyst for literal, political revolt. During the recent riots in Egypt, one Cairo activist tweeted: “We used Facebook to schedule the protests, Twitter to coordinate and YouTube to tell the world.” The fact that people need relationship and want connection is the driving force behind almost all technology and internet applications today.

What is the believer’s responsibility toward social media? How should we view this new frontier? Are we called to be Cretans to whom “nothing is pure” and avoid social media completely? (Titus 1:15) Or should we employ the Corinthian approach: embrace with both arms, but no brain (2Corinthians 11:3,4). Maybe you prefer the Ephesian approach where our interactions within social media indicate that we have “lost our first love”(Revelation 2:4). The biblical approach is that employed by the Apostle Paul who saw not only the danger but also the great potential of new technology. It was him who maximized the relatively new social media of his day – the epistle – in order to write the majority of the New Testament.

The bottom line is, does Scripture address the issue of social media? The answer is a resounding, yes! Here are eight guiding principles for the Christian and social media: Read the remainder of this entry »