RANT: Christian Social Media Sites?!
You’ve heard about YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, the dying MySpace… but have you heard of GodTube (now tangle), ChristianTube & ChristianSpaces?! Well I have… and I’ve never really given them much attention.
My Twitter friend Danny Eason clued me in on Godwitter today. Here is his tweet about it:
Seriously!!!
Why must Christian’s take all these social media ideas and create a “Christian Community” version of them? While the Christian versions of all these popular sites might be well intentioned, are they really creating a space where God’s word can be heard by the unchurched? If you are a “Godwitterer” and you “witter” a bible verse or link to a Christian video on tangle, aren’t you preaching to the choir? It seems like these online Christian communities are just running around in circles.
Danny’s question is a good one.
When will we stop copying the ‘worlds’ ideas and just start using them to impact culture?
If you’re going to preach the word of God from the keyboard… you’ve got to preach from the platform that will give you the largest audience of non-believers and believers alike!
Rant off…
[Image by: Nesster]
Yeah I am with you and Danny!!
Not only just to use them to impact culture but to lead the way and develop our own!!!!
It would be so cool to be a part of something like this – to be used by God in this way – so Cool.
What are you saying exactly? Do you think sites like Godwitter are good? I'm saying that we should be using the mainstream ones like Twitter (which I know you and I both are) to impact culture in that way. Not go off and create our own Christian version. It just seems like a waste of time to me.
Oh, easy answer to this one…because people like living in the Christian Ghetto. Christian friends, christian movies, christian music, christian schools, christian cocooning is what happens!!!!!
I go with CS Lewis on this one…other people find out we are Christians when we work with them, fight along side of them, and live among them.
Absolutely! Point for CS Lewis!
CS Lewis is like a trump card. That man had so much wisdom, it makes me crazy! Just an ounce, Lord!
word
I'm with you Graham and Danny, but let me add my little Social Media rant. Most people that I know on social sites still only friend/follow/whatever people within their realm of interest. Christians tend to follow Christians, etc. So even then, we're still building sub-cultures and ghettos within the larger mainstream social sites.
So that means we need to start following/friending those outside of our culture/sub-groups. Doesn't it? Don't we just fall into the same trap whether we're building our own ChurchTwitter or doing it within Twitter?
Absolutely! I know I've fallen into this trap many times. I'm continually trying to make a conscience effort to connect with my non-Christian friends on Facebook and Twitter. It's easy to talk about God with people like you, and I know that I need to keep reading and commenting on other Christian's blogs, but it's important to minister to others as well.
Good point!
As for me, the "walled gardens" of Christan culture are doomed to fail as outreach prospects. They will never attract anyone outside of the holy huddle anyway. (Well, never say never, but overall) On Twitter, I follow people who are interested in the same stuff I am. But I do not say "because you aren't Christian, I won't follow you." If your feed adds value to me, then I follow. If you add value to the space, people will follow. That is what we should care about. <gets off soapbox>
AMEN!
(I had a soapbox image that I was thinking about using instead of the rant one…
I think we have forgotten that we are to be IN the world, and not of it. Separating Christian music and such out and classifying it sets it apart and makes is seem less attainable to those searching for God's grace. I like Josh's comment about the "holy huddle." God comes to us…we don't go to him. So…shouldn't we go to the searching people, rather than making them come to us? That would me we go to where they are. And the hurting are the pople to your right, to your left, before you and behind you…and you.
Good insight!
I am going to throw a slightly dissenting opinion, but before I do let me say I agree with all the above. If the goal is just to create a "one-off Christian" version of something, then give up. There was a time when the church DROVE the CULTURE. Not the other way around. Lewis said "What the world needs is not more Christian authors, but rather more GOOD authors that happen to be Christian". When the Gates, Brins, and Zuckerbergs of the world say "Wow, look at what those church people are doing. Wish we had thought of that" we will know we are on to something.
Now to my dissent:
Amen!
There are a couple of companies out there, namely The City, 360hubs, Unifyer, and LiveKite that are creating social networks for church USE. 360hubs actually started out making a tool for businesses and has now opened it up to church use. These companies do it as a means of integration with the local dataset. It is an additional tool. Here I can see it having value. The integration within the church systems allows for better overall ministry. Especially on the local level.
But as a means to stick your head in the sand because "icky people are on Facebook"? Not so much.
Interesting. I would agree with you here too. If a company is able to be successful at integrating their social media software into a church's database… that could prove to be valuable. I like your last line… "icky people are on Facebook"… haha… we need to make them less "icky"!
You've seen the news re: ACS and Unifyer, right? http://blog.unifyer.com
Sweet! My church is just starting the integration of ACS with our staff! I'll have to check this out tomorrow… thanks for the heads up! I know ACS has talked a lot about using Facebook and Twitter for ministry. I'm interested in unifyer.
You HAVE GOT to see the ACS-Facebook integration! Bi-directional with AccessACS. Your small group members are in a tab, look up records in the database straight from Facebook. Push change requests back out from Facebook. Great stuff. Still in beta as there are some terms of service issues to work out with Facebook. I posted a twitpic of it today. You probably saw it.
Dude that's awesome!!! Seriously looking forward to using this! We actually started the process of activating Access ACS yesterday. Hopefully we'll be online soon.
for all – here's the picture Jeff was talking about –> http://twitpic.com/629mm
Thanks man!