Be Incarnational

I use three of the biggest social network media available today: Twitter™, Facebook™, and email. The reason I use these is

Image courtesy of fredonia.edu

because I have been called to tell the Good News about Jesus. Through these tools I can tell the Good News about Jesus to nearly 2000 people every day.

Twitter™ has been in the news a lot over the last two or three years. Facebook™ had a multi-million-dollar-earning moving about it last year. Email messages outnumber postal mail (“snail mail”) 81-1.

Social network media is here and it is popular and it is growing. Over 40 million Americans tweet. Facebook has over 500 million members. There are 39.6 billion email messages sent every day.

1/12 of the planet is connected socially – and doesn’t have to see the light of day to connect.

This is why these media have been called virtual media. People can connect with other people and never have to actually be in the presence of a flesh-and-blood person.

That’s pretty cool. It is also efficient and immediate – two things 21^st Century American culture loves very much.

But when it comes to telling the Good News about Jesus, it isn’t enough. I believe that Jesus came when He did – 2000 years ago and not today – because of the social network media stuff didn’t exist then as it does today (not only because of it but it was part of the reason, I believe).

Jesus may have been able to reach more people using Twitter™, Facebook™, and email than He did in the three years walked this earth. But I don’t believe Jesus would have changed nearly as many lives.

The whole point of Jesus Christ coming was so that God could interact with humans in the most intimate way – by taking on flesh-and-blood and dwelling among people.

I will not condemn social networking media but I will emphasize that we must livebeyond the virtual media and actually go out and talk and walk and live among flesh-and-blood people.

We must be just as incarnational with people as God is with us.