5 ways to share the faith on social networks

A while back, I signed on to Facebook and there it was: a smackdown. Someone posted a short remark about religion that someone else doesn’t like, and a fight was on. The remark wasn’t scandalous or mean, it was just a personal opinion. But the comments flew, pitting one side against another. It’s an experience that a friend describes as anti-social networking.

Sure, social networking is great when sharing inspirational memes and life achievements, but can it really hold the potential for good? In a message on World Communications Day 2014, Pope Francis asserted that social networking can foster unity among people. It can introduce us to viewpoints that are very different from our own, making us more expansive. Further, he noted, social networks can be a place of true encounter with God and our neighbors worldwide.

How can social networks become a place of Christian community? I turned, oddly enough, to the early church for answers to this modern question.

Intimate connections

The early church had its fair share of good and bad days. Still reeling from the events of Jesus’ Passion, death, and Resurrection, believers remained committed to staying together and following Jesus. They used many images and symbols to speak of their nascent community, such as the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:12-14).

One of my favorites comes from the book of Acts: koinonia, the Greek word for an intimately connected community. Koinonia describes the group of people who began to follow Jesus and gather as a new community. They were people who sought a deeper relationship with God and one another and took steps to draw closer.

“They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers. Awe came upon everyone, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their property and possessions and divide them among all according to each one’s need. Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple area and to breaking bread in their homes. They ate their meals with exultation and sincerity of heart, praising God and enjoying favor with all the people. …” (2:42-47)

The passage describes community at its best! But we know community life even for the first disciples wasn’t perfect. In Saint Paul’s letters he responds to struggles that emerged between members and communities. What Acts offers is a compelling vision, one that inspires and motivates believers to keep striving for community even when the going gets tough.

As I considered more closely this vision of community, I began to find good advice for engaging online.

1. Transforming the ordinary

Sometimes it’s hard to believe that the ordinary stuff of life can be transformative. In Acts, believers shared in everyday activities such as eating meals together. But in the context of faith, the meals took on greater significance. They provided spiritual as well as physical nourishment. The ordinary act of having a meal became transformative, deepening their relationship with God and strengthening the community.

On social networks, people share lots of ordinary stuff, too. Photos of a walk in the park, cat videos, recipes, golf techniques. These things aren’t overtly religious, but they can open up to conversations of greater depth and meaning.

The Facebook remark about religion occurred in an otherwise ordinary conversation about daily life. People were talking about how they manage stress. Although the conversation went downhill quickly after the religion remark, it would later be transformed by an act of kindness—a question—that would help people to understand why the remark was made and to respond with compassion.

2. Keeping the apostles at our side

The early church was blessed to have many of the apostles and first disciples to walk with them. These mentors not only performed “many wonders and signs” but also showed by their lives how to follow Jesus. These same kinds of mentors are in our online communities—women and men whose posts populate our newsfeeds and who engage with us through Pinterest images. They model koinonia behavior and inspire us to become online mentors, too.

3. Old-school crowdsourcing

What an idealistic group those early church people were! Holding all things in common. Distributing all goods according to need. The early church community is in many ways a great example of crowdsourcing at its best. Today everything from the mundane to the extraordinary—from a Kickstarter for creative projects to campaigns to rebuild Haiti—can happen when the gifts of the community are brought together, from money to expertise to prayers.

4. Being our best selves in Christ

Scripture remembers the early church members not only as being in community with one another but also still being themselves. Having “sincerity of heart” suggests that the members were able to call forth their best selves in Christ and encourage one another to do the same. Sincerity isn’t always easy. In a group, putting ourselves out there can be risky. We could be re-tweeted, or we could be criticized. Yet there’s great value in speaking out. It’s a way to witness to our faith. And what we say that day might be exactly what someone else is longing to hear!

When we’re our best selves, awesome things can happen, as was the case during the Facebook debacle. As I was thinking about how to respond, I began to see other people step up. Instead of taking sides, they expressed their love of a faith tradition that’s big enough to hold many different perspectives. They talked about being united in God even in the midst of strong differences of opinion. By being their best selves in Christ, they became the face of Christ to us and called us to be our best selves, too.

5. Being neighbors

The early church included women and men from many walks of life. Ordinarily they might not have associated with one another. But in faith, they were no longer strangers. They shared a deep bond that affected their attitudes and actions toward each other and the world.

The turning point in the Facebook situation occurred when a woman addressed the person who wrote the original remark. With kindness, she asked him what he meant. He could have responded defensively, given the tone of comments he’d already received, but he didn’t. He explained that he used to be very into his faith but now had many hardships, and it didn’t seem like religion and God were helpful. He missed his church community, but was too angry to go back. That’s when the negative comments on Facebook stopped. Several people apologized and offered prayerful support. Strangers turned into neighbors.

The Facebook ordeal wasn’t the last of its kind that I have encountered on social media. But it showed me that the light of faith can outshine the dimmer moments that we stumble into as humans. Our faith tradition gives us a vision of community so powerful that it has endured for centuries and can be employed today, in even small ways, when tweeting, pinning, chatting, and otherwise engaging online with God’s mission in mind.

Related article: vocationnetwork.org, Guide to growing your community in the digital age, Vision 2015.