Our culture is quickly moving to the place (if it’s not there already) where social media relationships are on a level playing field with real life face-to-face connections.  Mankind has always had the need for community, connection with other people who are similar to us.  Just recently has the internet caught up to our desire for social relationships.  For years, the Internet was simply a place for information, but now it is a place for connecting through blogs, retweets, likes, comments, and facetime.

What’s a Christian to do?  Do these methods count as real relationships?  Can I simply sit at a computer for 40 hours a week and punch my timecard for ministry?  Social media is no longer just a tool for many young adults; it’s a source of real friendships.

Technology is forcing ministry to change or cease being effective.  We have to roll with the changes and adjust.  Is it ideal?  You can be the judge, but regardless we have to decide if when Jesus tells us not to “forsake the assembling of ourselves” is he talking about ignoring Facebook messages as well as attending a church service.

I’m a native to the technology culture, so I don’t have too much of a problem with the trend towards online churches and digital small groups.  Yet, on the other hand, it seems silly that I would log on to a site for my communal experience, when I could just drive 10 minutes.

It does seem that there is a different dynamic in person.  Anonymity is gone.  It’s obviously easier to read faces.  Sitting down with a cup of coffee feels different than sitting down to a Skype chat.  There are some intangibles when getting together in real life that don’t seem to translate in digital conversations.  But the tides might soon be shifting, and we must be ready to react to the potential of personal interaction with our small group becoming a thing of the past.

For the time, we sit waiting.  Waiting for social media to teeter one way or the other.  Perhaps 20 years from now social media will simply be seen as an enhancement for real life relationships. Or perhaps it will have replaced them.  Regardless, our message is timeless. So as Christians we must always be looking to the future to how we can effectively communicate the Gospel to each generation.

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