Social Media and Technology in the Church

Facebook now has over 1 billion users. If Facebook was a country, it would be the third largest country in the world by population. Twitter has over 500 million users. Thats more people than there are living in the US. YouTube, the 2nd largest search engine uploads over 60 hours of content per minute with 4 billion videos viewed per day. There are over 13 million articles on Wikipedia. There are 60 million professional users on Linkedln.

 1 in 5 couples meet online. Generation Y and Z consider email to be a thing of the past. To the point where some universities have stopped issuing email accounts. Its too "old fashioned". The mobile device will be the worlds primary tool for connecting to the internet by the year 2020. Kindergartens are learning on iPads, not chalk boards. 11 is the average age that children in America receive a cell phone. 10% of parents say that their children received a cell phone between the ages of 7 and 9.

 With these trends needing to be updated at an increasing faster pace, a question then arises. Should the Church be heavily plugged into social media, social networking, and new technologies? It can be a heated debate depending on who we ask. One side would say that we need to stay out of the world and not get into the toxic environment that social networks can bring or involve ourselves in the distractions that surrounding ourselves with technology and mobile devices can create.

Proponents of the Church engaging in social media and technology would argue that sites like Facebook and twitter give us a method of influence never before achieved. I would like to argue for a more digitally connected church from a different perspective. Look back in church history and what do we see? Historically the Church has always led the way in innovation and progress.

The Gutenberg Bible was the first book ever published by a printing press. From then on the Church led the way in literature and poetry. In music, the monks developed the foundation for modern western musical notation. Likewise in art, much of the renascence art now famous around the world was commissioned and promoted by the Church. Even in the areas of philosophy and science the Church was on the forefront promoting progress in these areas.
 The Church historically has led the way in education. Centuries ago the most literate among the people were the clergy. Sunday School was started in the 1700's as a means of educating the poor. In America's infancy, the Church and religious institutions were responsible for educating the public. The Church has led the way in nearly every area of progress and innovation in society EXCEPT social networks, social media, and technology. Instead we resist it, speak against it, and now at the last minute are trying to play catch up.

The world is leading us in this area instead of us leading them. Why? God has called the Church to be His body on this planet. We are Kingdom ambassadors with the local church being the Kingdoms embassy. We the Church should be leading the way in this new area of progress and innovation. Not only do social networks and technology open new doors for evangelism and outreach never before imagined, it keeps the Church's tradition of being the leader and example in our society alive.