The gospel is public truth. The good news of Jesus is not just something to think about behind our church walls, but like the first Christians in the book of Acts, we need to take the gospel into the public square.
Today’s public square is increasingly digital, with many people in the UK spending huge amounts of time online. For sure, inhabiting the digital world brings its challenges, but it also brings wonderful opportunities. So if you’re online, especially on social media, prayerfully consider how to use your online presence as a witness for Jesus.
There are two traps that Christians sometimes fall into when it comes to social media. The first trap is to be a Digital Undercover Christian; sharing nothing at all about your faith, but gumming up your feed with pictures of your kids looking cute, or cringy memes that everybody else saw three years ago.
Some of us go the other way, plastering our social media with insanely naff Christian content or worse, utterly bonkers Christian conspiracy theories. (Why would anybody think your belief in the resurrection has credibility if you spend most your time posting about how cell phone towers cause hair loss in tortoises or something similarly inane?)
So, here are some quick, easy, and practical ideas about how to stand up for Jesus online:
- Pray. Ensure you’re regularly committing your online life to the Lord.
- Fly a faith flag. Find sensible ways of signalling you’re a Christian. (Post about a good church service you went to, or a brilliant Christian book you read, or an engaging talk you found online).
- Share good, thoughtful Christian content. (We’ll have a whole later instalment of Launch Pad on this, but for now, try websites like Solas or LICC).
- Offer to pray. If a friend shares that they’re having a bad day, why not reply and say you’ll be praying for them?
- Follow churches and Christian ministries, or “like” their posts; the algorithms will spot this and magnify that content.
We all probably spend a bit too much time online: but given that we are online, let’s use some of that time and opportunity for the Lord.
Here’s a prayer: Lord Jesus, please help me use my time wisely. But when I am online, please help be thoughtful, Christ-like, and a witness for you. Amen!
Previously: Launch Pad #5: Baited Hooks for Gospel Conversation
