I know, I know… anywhere and everywhere is a platform for evangelism, but stay with me here for just a moment and let me explain – and also help me out with the question.
So if you have 150 friends on Facebook, and they are legitimate friends that know you, love you, or are relatively acquainted with you, then they more than likely know you’re a Christian (of course, I’m talking to fellow Christians here…).
And then if that’s the case, then it might also be fair to assume that of the 150 friends you have on Facebook, a portion of them are not Christians – right? Just based on a national statistics, I could safely guess that at least 20 percent of friends on Facebook do not know Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior.
And with that being the case – my question (and I don’t know… that’s why I’m asking and working my way through this issue) is whether or not Facebook could become a platform for evangelism?
I shared a story last week about how my wife updated her Facebook profile with a testimony that talked about God worked a miracle in her life. And how that update received comments and likes, and the viral exposure that created – meaning, my wife’s update on Facebook could have possibly gone out to thousands of people that she didn’t even know.
So in a way – would that not be a form of “evangelism” on Facebook?
I’ve been wrestling with this notion lately that Facebook is an amazing platform for evangelism. However, it also needs to be tempered with “real life” relationships with your friends. Because if all of a sudden, your friends see you preaching at them all the time, then I think we know what will happen – your friend count would start to drop!
So what do you think – is Facebook a platform for evangelism?
And if so, how do you see it working, or what are the best ways to leverage Facebook for evangelism?
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I'm NOT CHristian but I respect your right to believe whatever you want to believe, just as I expect you to do the same. Accordingly, if this is not the last post with a very thinly veiled attempt to push your religious agenda/ find out my religious leanings, you will, indeed, be "unfriended". There are plenty of other techno news sources out there that don't care one way or the other what my religious leanings may be.
Hi Betsy - thanks so much for commenting, I really appreciate you taking the time to add value!
At the end of the day, I am who I am and I always try to write out of my convictions. I understand that might not always bode well for everyone, but then again, I'm not trying to please everyone.
Again, I really do appreciate you taking the time out of your day to visit my blog and leave a comment - like you side, there are thousands of tech blogs you can spend your time at...
Thanks again Betsy
I do see where your coming from entirety. How do you effectively minister to both Christian and non-Christians (together at the same time) without depriving one or steering away the other. This is quite hard as I have been so blessed by gospel on Facebook and would hate to think I might lose this, but I recognise how others may be turned away as a result of being bombarded with something they do not believe or understand. So do you continue to preach fervently and sacrifice loosing those who are unfamiliar with the gospel and hence your chance to help them to come to Jesus or you preach less frequently and risk failing to bless those who have been helped greatly by the understanding you've shed on God's word.
One think that I considered is that of course I don't think for a second we should cease to make God's word known, but maybe how we approach this can be addressed. I.e. delivering God's word in such a way that is accessible to all. For example, sending a personal message to someone to ask how they are and taking interest in their affairs. Translating Gods scripture into motivational quotes that need not use religious terminology. Congratulating or thoughtfully replying to comments people post. Even asking them how they feel about your preaching a helping them understand your message even if they don't agree. I think ultimately if we can deliver our messages in such a way that all can understand and benefit and allowing our comments and gestures to reflects Gods love and his light (I.e. maybe use a thought provoking quote to translate what you've learnt from a scripture). We can embody Gods word in comments that on the surface to do not come across as preaching even though they are based and filled with Gods word). I think this is one way that can help us to achieve a balance.
those are great ideas indeed - we need to be careful not to water down the gospel though. However, like you said, we don't want to beat people over the head with scripture either lest we lose that connection on Facebook.
Perhaps we take the same approach we can take with our real life experiences - be a source of hope, light, peace, and let our light shine in the way we interact, always looking for an opportunity to minister to someone based on what they've said on Facebook.
Finding ways to be a great "friend" and minister through friendships to other people - sharing our testimonies - and just being consistent.
Eventually, people on Facebook will get it, they'll figure out sooner rather than later that you are Christian, and then they can decide if they want to stick around.
But after awhile, if you're consistent with your message of hope and lifting up the name of Jesus, and the friends are still sticking around, then either they don't pay attention to Facebook or they are finding your updates a source of encouragement.
Thanks for the excellent post. I like the way your wife shared her story and the other ideas R Ameyinoge presented.
If Facebook reflects who we are, then we shouldn't compartmentalize our Christian life to just being offline.
As a Christian, evangelism should be a natural extension of our lives, which I know is easier said than done but we are called to share the good news.
With that said, our job is contact not conversion. The Holy Spirit is the one that moves in people's hearts. We shouldn't use Facebook or any other tool to shove it down people's throats.
On our blog, we recently talked about good and bad examples of online evangelism. If you're interested, here's the link:
Thanks again for what you do here! This is a great site!