- [Trevin Wax] So brothers, we're living in a digital age.
And I know there are a lot of pastors who are wondering how should we engage
in this world of social media? We want to be communicators of biblical
and gospel truth in the different spheres of influence we've been given.
But the question comes up, how do we do this with social media?
One of the questions some pastors will raise is, should we even be involved
in social media? Would you say that a pastor needs to be engaged in Twitter,
Facebook, Instagram, and things like this? What kind of counsel should we give
as we're helping pastors think through this?
- [Scott Sauls] Well, every generation is on social media. The older you are the more
oriented toward Facebook, mid-range, Twitter, young people, Instagram. And so,
seems like maybe, like Luther used the printing press,
we ought to consider a healthy life-giving use of technology. Great opportunity
for small touches, especially for pastors who are leading congregations that are
larger than their own relational capacity. I found it, actually, a really helpful way
to have personal touches, small personal touches with people I
otherwise might not even know who are part of my own church. And so it's been really
helpful and fruitful that way. I think the danger is kind of a highlight
reel aspect, and…
- What do you mean by that?
- Just presenting the best parts of your life and your ministry,
not telling the whole truth about your life and your ministry.
And that becomes a potential integrity issue. And I think too,
that pastors get in trouble when we respond to the outrage culture,
as participants rather than as diffusers. I think on the positive side,
social media can be a tremendous opportunity to demonstrate what it means
to respond healthily to unfair criticism, you know, trolling, as they call it,
things of that sort. So it can be an opportunity to be a
good example. It also can be an opportunity to ruin your witness,
just depending on how you engage with the debate aspects and the
argumentative aspects of social media.
- [Russell Moore] Yeah. I would say that there's not a rule that I would give to
every person in ministry about social media. What I would say is,
you need to recognize and know that your people and your mission field discusses
are on social media. But then a lot of the determination of how
you use it is really going to depend upon your own particular vulnerabilities and
knowing that. So there are some, people who are drawn
toward being quarrelsome as Paul forbids us to be. And social media can be a real
point to vulnerability toward that kind of pugilistic side. There are other people
who are kind of looking at social media the way a politician looks at approval
ratings constantly. How am I doing? Which is, that is not a good read
of what's happening because everybody in your church who hates you may well say
that on social media, but the people who say,
"I really am praying for my pastor," typically aren't going on and saying that
they assume everybody else is. And so if that's a point of vulnerability,
kind of finding your identity in what's going on for any other direction,
then I would say, find some other way to engage in social media.
- I think one of the things that I am thinking about as a teaching pastor who is
using social media and writing some is, I'm thinking about this platform as a way
to help the people in my congregation interpret the world through a
Christian framework. Now, that doesn't mean that I'm always getting
it right as I'm going but I'd see it as an extension of, there are certain topics and
certain things and interesting things that I might share, that I might discuss or
make mention of online that wouldn't be appropriate in a Sunday sermon or in a
normal teaching environment in a congregation and yet,
social media does give, it gives me the opportunity to make
comment on something or pass along something of interest,
something that would help people along in the way they may be thinking about the
world or wondering, "How do we interpret certain events?" But we have to be careful
when we do this because the dangers of us being sort of sucked into like you said,
the outrage machine or succumbing to our vulnerabilities online,
the dangers there to be sucked into that kind of an outrage culture where we may
think we are warrioring for Jesus Christ online but if we're engaging just
like everyone else then we really are being just like the world regardless
of the particular stance that we're taking online, biblical or not.
- A gentle answer turns away wrath. [Prov. 15:1]
- Absolutely.
- Again, I think it's a good potential platform to demonstrate what that
looks like. And, in that can be a wonderful discipleship tool.
Paul writes to Timothy and says, "Watch your life and doctrine closely
because in so doing you'll save those who hear," [1 Tim. 4:16] and this is
part of what a Minister's platform can be in this day and age.
And if you look at generations Z and even the millennial generation, I mean,
they're natives now. This is their native tongue. And, I mean,
to say that you can't or shouldn't speak via social media to younger generations
in particular is like saying, "Well, you ought to maybe try to pastor
an English-speaking congregation chiefly by speaking Spanish."
And I know that's a little bit extreme and hyperbolic but if you're not
connected online, you lose a pretty significant opportunity especially
with younger folks who live that world.
- Do we also face the danger though of, I hear that and I'm thinking some people
may be watching us and the pushback might be, we live in a broadcast culture where
so much of, "If it's not posted online, did it really happen?" Kind of a culture,
and you see that all, in all generations in particular.
Everything has to be captured and photographed and then put online.
Is there the danger that pastors may confuse social, some who are very active
on social media that pastors may confuse their social media use with actual,
take this as the sign that they're faithfully pastoring when so much
of pastoral ministry is not broadcasted, it's one-on-one, it's personal,
it's at the hospital bedside and in other places.
- Well, that's especially true if someone is again, if you can come back to that
point of vulnerability. If someone is having to be constantly
engaging in a particular social media platform in a way that absence the ability
to be able to think and reflect, then as someone who says,
"I need to find a way, maybe I do this but I do it in more
scheduled sorts of ways," I think that's something they ought to,
we ought to pay attention to and live the life of Jesus, withdrawing, engaging,
withdrawing, engaging. I think the same thing's true
with social media.
- So engaging intentionally, carefully, knowing our vulnerabilities and trying
to be a pastoral presence in the spaces where people are at. Thank you, brothers.