Social Media and Church Growth

Social Media and Church Growth

Social Media and Church Growth is very important for Churches to have. We @rccgpal believe in the utilisation of social media, or ANY KIND OF MEDIA to propagate the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. I mean, we just want you to hear it, to hear HIM – HE must be heard, seen, related to… by any means necessary.

Social Media Belongs to God

We do understand that the devil is trying to use social media to lure in our Children. We hate this. We do not want this. We reject it in Jesus’ Name. But just like sex, we know that God created social media because HE, HIMSELF, is the very foundation of “socail”. God is social. God looked at Adam and said:

The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

Genesis 2:18 NIV

And by that same logic, God is Good. If God is Good, then God is not alone. This is what is seen in the complexity of what we know as the Trinity which likewise fits very much, very well into the philosophical idea of “love”. Love, by definition, if it is primarily selfish, is not really love. So, God loves HIMSELF, but not primarily. The Truest sense of the word for love and how God loves, is that the Father Loves the Son and Spirit; the Son loves the Father and Spirit and the Spirit Loves the Father and Son. Love, by philosophical attribution, at a primary fundamental level, is always outward to another subject. Hence, this is what makes God, on a fundamental level, to be to be a Social Being. This is why I said that God is social.

This is why I believe that God wants us to be social. God wants us to grow our sphere of social influence as big as possible because we are Christians. This is why the bible says

For all creation [κτίσεως (ktiseōs) ] is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. 

Romans 8:19 NLT

The bible tells us that all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day where God will reveal you, HIS Child. And Jesus told us:

And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation [κτίσεως (ktisei ) ].

Mark 16:15 ESV

The greek words ktisei and ktisei both form from the same originative greek word ktisis which means creation (the act or the product). In essence, God is sending us to all and sundry with HIS message. I always say, “If it has been created, then preach to it“. Living and non-living. Even the earth too needs you to preach to her. Bless this earth, say that the boundary lines of this earth will fall for you in pleasant places (Pslam 16:6). Say that you will eat the Good of the land (Isaiah 1:19). You need to get into a habit of preaching to yourself too, of preaching to inanimate earth too and of preaching to all and sundry in the social world of men.

So how does social media help? Well, for one, you can ADD prudence to your physical movement – that is, you can add a virtual movement. As said earlier, the devil wants to take over the earth, the earth does not belong to the devil. The devil wants to take over social media, social media does not belong to the devil. What belongs to the devil? Nothing! The devil is a liar, thief and murderer (John 10:10). All keys – authorities have been given to Jesus (Matthew 16:19). So, this uis what makes me believe that SOCIAL MEDIA BELONGS TO JESUS – Not the Devil.

Ecclesiology and Social Media

So, how can social medai be used in our Ecclesiology? Well, the word “social” connotates some sort of complexity. There is no “one size fits all in socialising”. As much as socailising indicates “relationship”, “interacting”; The people of Japan would not want us to relate to them as we would, the people of china. And neither would the people of China require us to interact with them as we would, the people of Zimbabwe. You see, everyone is different. And even in those “national groups”… not every individual is the same when interactingf with them. Eveyone has their own individual backgrounds. This is why the bible says:

The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise.

Proverbs 11:30 KJV

It takes the wisdom of the Holy Spirit to win a soul. And its not just winning souls in terms of bringing them to a saving/ repenting knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is also, winning souls in the present continuous tense … going on and on, today, tomorrow and forever. That’s how you show that the wisdom of God is with you – hey! even if you do not show it, the wisdom of God is STILL with you – have faith

How does interacting with and relating to people on social media actually help church growth? As we learnt in one of our theological classes titled: Incorporeality and Omniscience, we saw that

…persons are the locus of value whether these be the divine persons of the Trinity or human persons created in God’s image. Persons are the locus of value. Therefore, one single person is worth more than all of the material universe combined. Think of that. That means that you as an individual person are worth more than the entire material universe in God’s economy. Things have value only insofar as they serve the purposes of persons; only insofar as they are useful to persons…. 

Persons are the locus of value. And the more we relate with other people, the more we bring out values. This is how the secular world works especially in capitalism and currencies. However, we are a chosen people, a royal priesthood who believes in the ideals of God’s economy. We are the ones who are supposed to know how to do social media very well – not worldly people.

Now we know that people are complicated and people are qunique and different. There are people that no matter what you do, you will never be able to be on good terms with them. There are those that you don’t even have to try, you find out that you just magically click. IT TAKES THE WISDOM OF GOD TO DEAL WITH PERSONS. When you know this, you will stay in the presence of Jesus. In fact, there are many things that Jesus has taught us that really helps us to deal with people.

• turn the other cheek
• go the extra mile
• bless those who curse you etc

we know that dealing with people in the ideal ways that Jesus has taught is not gonna be easy expecially towards many kinds of people. That is why a matured person is a people-person. People are not robots, they are spirits. Knowing how to deal with one is key and it takes the help of the Holy Spirit.

Sometimes, to get the best out of people, you have to show them Grace, sometimes, you have to show them law. All in all, you have to be ready to deal with people, pass with some, fail with some, the joyful with some and be frustrated with some – all of them can be seen on the spectrum from non-christians to christians all alike. But, yes, you still have to deal with people in God’s kingdom.

Socialising is the Key to Church Growth

So, since people are very important, and people who own businesses will tell you this too. How do they affect the ecclesiology of Church growth in the general sense?

1. For one, you can’t ignore people. Specifically, you can ignore certain kinds of people but generally, you can’t.
2. Secondly, there are many otherchurches around us, it is important that we, as a Church, get into their motions too. Let their struggles be our struggles and let their celebration be our own celebration too.
3. Thirdly, it is impotant to build each other up. Joyce Meyer alwasy says something: “If you’re struggling with Joy, go make someone else joyful, stop concentrating on yourself.” I also remember a story of a minister who saw people in hell. They were given very long spoons and told to eat from a pot of soup that would sustain them. All of them kept trying to eat for themselves and they were hungry, frustrated, starving and dieing in hell. The minister was later shown in this vision anoter room where the same criteria was given to these people but rather than feeding themselves, their own ego, they decided to humbly feed each other. The moral of the story is that, we Churches need to learn to feed each other because the work that God has given us, for us to grow, is too big (or too long) for us to only better ourselves with.

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