Owen Strachan had an interesting post last week in which he reflected on another article on the prevalence of boasting in modern social media. I won’t repeat it, but I would recommend it if you haven’t already read it. He talks about the danger of letting social media become a tool for self-promotion and braggadocio.
It is certainly a struggle to walk that fine line.
I’ve noticed something that bothers me. Maybe I’m just being crotchety in my advancing old age. But I’ve noticed that same kind of struggle in our promotion of our churches in social media.
It seems to me that we walk a fine line between praising God for what he is doing in our churches and simply bragging about the greatness of my church.
- “I’m so pumped to be part of this great fellowship.” (Maybe I just hate words like pumped and stoked!)
- This is the greatest church.
- We have the best preacher (I hear that all the time – actually, they say “the best-looking preacher” – sorry, did I doze off there for a moment?)
We extol the great things that God is doing in our church and about how he is using us, but sometimes in my admittedly judgmental ears I hear of note of pride and self-adulation.
There is no easy line of demarcation here. Words meant in the purest of praise can come across to others as boastful. Perhaps my reflections are simply based in jealousy. But it is important that we not only give all glory to God in words, but in our hearts as well.
I was reading facebook over the weekend and read a post by a friend of mine who excited about the good things that God was doing in his church. He was genuinely excited over what God had done. I read another communication from a pastor who delineated one great thing after the other going on in his church. My gut-response to this one was completely different. Why? Was one prideful and the other not? One was a friend and the other was a pastor I’m not crazy about – that may have played a part.
But I think we need to be careful was we extol the virtues and values of our churches. It is important that our advertising and our social media give all glory to God and not attempt to create the idea that ours is the cool gang and you should come so you can be “one of us.”
Ok, guys. Rant is over. Now you can tell me what a jerk I am.
