On today’s Tech Help for Churches, Twitter: Sharing Your Faith on Social Media
When people engage in social media evangelism, they sometimes make some mistakes that make it harder than it should be. Are you doing these things?
Words mean things
Use words that are appropriate to the people you’re talking to. Remember that despite being God and knowing everything, Jesus didn’t use “big words.” He talked about flowers, seeds, and yeast. Churches have even taken the normal words that the Bible uses and transliterated them (changing the letters from Greek or Hebrew) instead of translating them.
Choose what marks you
I had a follower on Twitter whose profile said, “I’m a Christian…I’m against illegal immigrants.” Perhaps he meant “immigration,” but the result was the same. It looked like he was against a group of people, not against an activity. By juxtaposing that with Christianity, he damaged any witness he might have had. Choose what you pair with your faith carefully.
Don’t be tricky
Don’t hide your faith in order to trick people into dialog. There’s a big conference that came to my town a couple of years ago. The price was so low for the business and leadership development it claimed to offer that I googled it. People either loved it or hated it. Why? It was a Christian conference masquerading as a secular one, luring people in with low ticket prices. Contrast that to Willow Creek’s Global Leadership Summit or Dave Ramsey. If you don’t know these are Christian endeavors, that’s your fault because they’re open about it.
They know already
People don’t call it “sin.” They call it “mistakes” or “regrets.” You don’t have to convince most people that they need help for those problems. When you call it “sin,” they often hear “I’m better than you are,” not “we’re all screwed up and need a Savior to help out.”
Don’t be impatient
Remember that Apollos plants, Paul waters, but God gives the growth. Your only goal should be to help people get a little farther down the road toward faith. Don’t push too much too quickly. Let God be God and help the person at his/her speed.
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Tech Help for Churches is a weekly podcast premiering every Monday at 11a eastern (-5 UTC), 8a pacific on http://churchtechcast.com. Watch it and join the chat then.
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