Thought for the Day- Reaching Out With Facebook

Hi, this is Jeremiah, and I'd like to share with you a "Thought for the Day."

Chances are, if you have internet access, you may have a Facebook account. I read recently on a Yahoo! article (don't remember which one so no citation, sorry) that there are 700 million Facebook subscribers, which is something like one out of every ten people on the planet. That's incredible, especially when you consider that there are billions of people with little or no internet access. If Facebook was a country, it would be the third most populous country in the world. See, as I missionary, I am looking at Facebook and I am thinking, "Wow! What a mission field!"

Facebook is also a force of society. The thing about pretty much any force is, depending on how and in what direction it is applied, force can be productive, or very destructive. Facebook is no exception. There is a huge potential for the Lord on Facebook but also a huge potential to destroy the Lord's work on Facebook. Today I want to encourage you to turn your Facebook account into a powerful outreach opportunity. Here are a few things we (and I am talking to myself here as well, make no mistake) could maybe bear in mind, to reach out on Facebook (or any social network for that matter).

1- Don't--- Don't destroy your testimony on Facebook. It saddens me to see many young people especially, who are in the church, destroying their testimony and even that of their church and family through their foolish behavior on Facebook, posting links that are inappropriate, putting up pictures that are shameful, liking things that are ungodly and so forth. Facebook means your Face is out there and especially when you are a Christian or in the church, people are looking at your activity on Facebook with a magnifying lens. Let's not give people a reason to disbelieve. You might say "that's hypocritical" but really, all we're talking about is living a Christian life... if you're doing that, you won't HAVE anything that you shouldn't post.

2- Do- Always try and leave some light out there, every time you get on Facebook. You might say, "I'm just checking for notifications on my phone." To which I ask... why? I mean, we can burn so much time on Facebook and other social media, doing nothing more than seeing what people say about us, preening basically. I know this. I was in college when Facebook first came out. Marist was one of the earlier schools to get Facebook. I remember people (myself even) checking their Facebook time and time again. That is, to be brutal, pretty narcissistic...http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/AheadoftheCurve/story?id=5887520&page=1 is an article among many which points this out. If we've got time to get on Facebook, I say we have time to leave some Light... an encouraging comment, a like of something uplifting, a link to something good.

One of the amazing things about Facebook is that there are so many ways you could reach out through Facebook... you could lift up a struggling friend, make a comment which will lead to a spiritual discussion, post a picture which will provoke discussion or thought, link to a Bible study website, put up a video that is powerful and so many more. It's just wating for creative Christians and tech savvies to reach the world.

Don't get me wrong... I have no problem with you putting up pictures of your kids, having a funny status or so forth. Facebook can be a lot of fun, but lets also realize that it's also a MASSIVE mission field. Facebook in some ways "just happened" to a lot of us. A friend invited us to something we didn't know much about, we got on and got involved in a pretty haphazard way. I know that was the case with me as a college student. What I'm calling for is for us to be conscious Facebook users. It has happened, and it's time we the Saint's make it a force for God. Some of you are already doing this... keep on brothers and sisters. In closing, I ask, "What's the point of connecting with people if it doesn't also help them connect with God?" That's my thought for the day. God bless.

Jeremiah

Hit up the comments with some ideas/ways to reach out with Facebook!