Thinking about how fast things travel throughout the world today: swine flu, Twitter messages (just saw that the White House jumped on board the social networking bandwagon with links to Twitter, My Space and Facebook.) The planet seems to be shrinking and people (though more now populate the earth than ever before) seem more closely related than ever.

As a believer, this line of thinking leads naturally to a thought about Jesus’ directive to “… go and make disciples of all nations …” (Matt. 28:19-20). In past decades revolutions in technology were seen as new, exciting media through which the message of Christ could be spread. Evangelist Billy Graham saw television and film this way. Even more recently, similarly-minded people have viewed the Internet with this same potential to “reach the world.” Check out Internet Evangelism Day’s site. Their tagline illustrates their perspective and my point well: “Seizing the potential.”

Other Christian groups have seen the potential of social media in particular and signed on to post away. Charity groups in particular were all “a-Twitter” last month when Sci-Fi celeb Hugh Jackman announced via Twitter that he would spot someone’s favorite cause $100K. He ended up choosing Charity Water and Operation of Hope—two groups already in the media spotlight thanks to Oprah Winfrey, CNN and others. Not the story of "unknown makes it big" that I like to see happen via the Web, but still a good thing.

Churches, too, are joining the texting and posting buzz with Tweets of their own. Beyond blogs, well past Web sites and crossing over into virtual relationships, social networking sites offer congregations a way to connect to one another beyond weekend worship, small groups, volunteer activities and fellowships. In a way, they keep the small church feeling in large congregations, too. 

Beyond the technology

But while churches and believers can now go everywhere instantly this way—and even potentially make disciples by tapping out words on keys—the trend, the technology or the tool is never the thing. It’s difficult to remember this in the midst of a social networking craze.

These apps can help churches with discipleship and fellowship. My church uses Twitter to keep followers aware of the latest news about the teaching blog, the small group offerings, the current ministry offerings or volunteer opportunities. A Facebooking congregation, small group or class may help people get to know each other better. Online photo sharing is a great way to communicate about global outreach or ministry events.  

However, the unreached people remain. Most likely they are not following you on any network. Most likely they are not even connected to electricity, much less a cell phone or the Internet. But on the off chance that technical savvy can attract the least reached in your area to the message of Christ—grab your QWERTY keypad, laptop, iPhone or whatever and type away.

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