I'm not adding another voice to the chorus bashing Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Pinterest, etc. In and of themselves, they're just tools for online interaction and information-sharing—with a little censorious bias thrown in here and there, albeit (which I've experience firsthand, btw). But, generally-speaking, it's all a matter of stewardship. And God can use social media to spread the gospel just like He can any other tool, electronic or otherwise. Simply put, social media can be used for good or evil. Hence my love/hate relationship with the way Christians use it.
Death and life are in the power of the tongue (Prov 18:21). And the tongue, when given a virtual mouthpiece, now has more far-reaching impact that ever before. The power of social media can be harnessed to spread the Word of God across the world with never-before-seen speed and magnitude. Formerly unreached people groups are now being reached with the gospel as a result of social media. But, false teaching is being disseminated widely online too.
As stewards of God's Word, we are urged to watch our lives and our doctrine closely, persevering in them, in order to save both ourselves and our hearers (1 Tim 4:16). Social media is a big part of our lives, and how we handle it as Christians is crucial. The world is watching.
Because biblical living is counter-cultural, using social media in a godly way is to swim against the tide. In our all-about-me culture, social media is dominated by narcissistic content that places the self at the center of everything. It's tempting to join in with the trending stream of self-promoting humblebrags that dominate our newsfeed. But as Christians on social media, we shouldn't conform to this worldly pattern of behavior, seeking instead to place Christ at our virtual center. Our presence on social media should reflect a sincere humility and love of Christ. At the very least, our faith in Him should be consistent with any content that we're putting out there. (This may sound like I'm stating the obvious, but the truth is, worldly culture is seeping into our churches and our presence on social media is certainly reflecting the impact of this).
This doesn't mean we need to be legalistic about tweeting only bible verses or sticking to exclusively "Christian" content. It doesn't mean we can't post a cute pic of our kid's first day at school or tweet about non-spiritual topics. It's more about having discernment. Rather than being sanctimonious about it, we simply need to live out our faith authentically in all areas of our lives, both on and off social media.
But it's hard to stay grounded in a fast-paced, over-stimulated culture in which our time is short and our attention-span, shorter. Our society is undergoing an A.D.D. epidemic in which the attention-span of the collective consciousness is shrinking by the second. If you can't tweet it in 140 characters or less, if it doesn't fit into a peppy soundbite, if doesn't download in a matter of seconds, it isn't worth our time.
And the same symptoms are affecting the spiritual health of Christianity in America. Today, many Christians, overwhelmed by life's frantic pace, are turning to quick-fix spirituality—or as I also like to refer to it, cotton candy for the soul. And for many of those in pursuit of the quick-fix, there's no time for discernment; if it sounds right, it probably is right. If a well-known pastor tweeted it, it's gospel. If a bestselling self-help author posted it, it's gotta be enlightened. If the word love is thrown in there enough times, then it must be loving. Inner truth? I'm sure that's in the Bible somewhere...No time to look it up on BibleGateway though.
Quick-fix spirituality provides people with feel-good moments inspired by nuggets of self-help wisdom and pithy pep talks: Don't feel down about yourself! You're beautiful! You're great! Tweets like these cater to human feelings first in an attempt to cheer everyone up. But in doing so, they center people back on themselves, not on Christ—missing the fact that His love for each of us is actually the good news!
It certainly seems that the time is upon us when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear (2 Tim 4:3).
The short attention-span of the over-scheduled populous has given rise to what I've begun to call "soundbite theology." Pastors are increasingly using soundbites in their sermons for impact. Christian writers, filmmakers, and leaders, competing for the spotlight in an information-saturated world, often use soundbites to grab the waning attention of the over-stimulated masses. And understandably so.
Here are just a few tweets I read today from very prominent, well-known Christian leaders in America:
"Maybe it’s been years. You tried and it didn’t work out. It is time to start dreaming again. Get your hopes up." —Hope in what?
"No obstacle is too big for you, no dream too great. You have the greatest force in the universe on the inside." —Force of what?
"Stay the course. Keep believing. You may be tired, discouraged and tempted to be frustrated, but don’t give up on your future." —Believing in what?
"God sees you with unlimited possibility. Don’t limit him with your doubt!" —We have the power to limit God??
This random selection of tweets exemplifies the ambiguity of bad soundbite theology. Ultimately, the reader will decide what they mean, and there's plenty of room for error. None of them refer us back to Scripture. All of them center on the self, and distract us from Christ.
Rather than reducing our faith to a slew of superficial slogans, then, good soundbite theology should not only grab our attention, but should challenge us to both grow in our faith and go deeper into God's Word. We should handle soundbite theology much like we should the Proverbs of Solomon. Proverbs can stand on their own as nuggets of wisdom, but they are much better read in context and in light of other Scripture. Soundbite theology should be a teaser, inspiring people to contemplate the deeper biblical meaning that lies beneath.
Praise God that there are a lot of very good, biblically-sound tweets out there in the Twittersphere! Here are some good ones I saw today:
C. S. Lewis @CSLewisDaily
“The #Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us.” ― #CSLewis
John Piper @JohnPiper
“The immeasurable power of God toward those who believe.” Shown how? They believe. It is impossible with man. (Matt. 19:26)
Lee Strobel @LeeStrobel
Our little time of suffering is not worthy of our first night's welcome home to Heaven. - Samuel Rutherford
Dr. Wayne Detzler @profdetz
The Doctrines of Grace. Salvation is by God's grace alone, not my fickle fumbling efforts, expectation, or endurance. (Titus 3:5)
Kevin DeYoung @RevKevDeYoung
The devil doesn’t want to make things spooky as much as he wants to make you forget about Christ.
The fact is, we can't avoid it: soundbite theology is here to stay. The more Christians who are committed to using social media to glorify God, the better! Let's saturate social media with content that points us to Christ!
Speaking of which, don't forget to share our posts on Facebook and follow us on Twitter! @faithactually :)
Speaking of which, don't forget to share our posts on Facebook and follow us on Twitter! @faithactually :)
1 comment:
Imagine if our theological tomes at seminary were reduced to paragraphs of 140 characters or less!
Post a Comment