Articles for tag: Facebook

July 1, 2023

Tyler McKenzie

Tyler McKenzie

Spiritual Formation 101: Three Guidelines for Meeting Our Moment

By Tyler McKenzie  Spiritual formation has become a buzz phrase. It sounds sophisticated, all the influencers use it, and it’s a way to signal my friends that I am one of those neo-monastic types who reads poetry and welcomes strangers into my home. But what does it actually mean, and why does it matter? I believe this is an important discussion in our cultural environment. A spiritual formation mindset can help us reframe the discipleship conversations we are having in our churches to meet our moment. When I’m asked to talk about spiritual formation, I boil it down to three

May 1, 2023

Tyler McKenzie

Gradations of Unity

By Tyler McKenzie  A recent Love Thy Neighborhood podcast detailed how fake news spreads in the church. They told a story from the 2016 election as a case study. On November 5, 2016, just three days before the presidential election, the Denver Guardian ran this headline: “FBI Agent Suspected in Hillary Email Leaks Found Dead in Apparent Murder-Suicide.” The article stated that FBI agent Michael Brown and his wife were found dead in their home. The web article looked legit. It included quotes from the local police chief, comments from neighbors, and links to online sources claiming it was a

January 1, 2023

Christian Standard

Are You a Truth-Teller?

By Kent E. Fillinger   A January 2021 Lifeway Research survey found 49 percent of U.S. Protestant pastors say they frequently hear members of their congregation repeating conspiracy theories about something happening in our country. Around 1 in 8 pastors (13 percent) strongly agree their congregants are sharing conspiracy theories.   WHAT THE RESEARCH SHOWS  An October 2020 research report found that Facebook users engage with misinformation 70 million times per month on average. Though far fewer than the 2016 peak of 200 million monthly fake news engagements, it still is no small figure. On Twitter, people share false content 4 million

November 4, 2022

Christian Standard

‘Mr. OCC’ Meredith Williams Uses Facebook Like Barnabas (and Barney Fife)

Among the 15,000 Ozark Christian College alumni, Meredith Williams is a legend. During his 46 years at OCC, Meredith wore many hats, including admissions director, alumni director, and many others. Nicknamed “Mr. OCC,” he’s been the college’s single best cheerleader, and when he retired in 2013 at age 73, his ministry didn’t stop. He just moved it to Facebook. . . .

June 14, 2021

Michael C. Mack

Words

Our words have the power to build up or tear down. Yet words can also be the healing agent God uses to bring reconciliation, rebirth, revival, and restoration. We need more of these healing words in every arena of our lives and ministries.

March 1, 2021

Brent Bramer

The Dilemma of Social Media and the Church

I received an email from Jonathan, a person I’d never met, last June. He explained that he’d hit a point in his life where he had questions about life, faith, his purpose, and how to respond to everything that was happening in the world. We were in the midst of a pandemic; people were losing their jobs, and there was political turmoil and racial injustice. Jonathan said he didn’t know how to process all the chaos we all were witnessing. Jonathan had found our church through Google and Instagram. Unbeknownst to me, he had been listening to our sermons and

January 1, 2021

Orpheus J. Heyward

A Renaissance Rebirth

How God Worked through the Pandemic to Move Our Church from Local to Global Ministry One of the most potent theological tenets of Scripture is called the Providence of God. The doctrine of Providence provides us with insight into God’s care for his creation as he continuously provides for its existence and sustenance. Additionally, Providence suggests that God is guiding his creation according to his divine purpose. A particular passage that accentuates this notion is Romans 8:28: “God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose”

July 8, 2020

Christian Standard

COVID-19 Compels Chitwood, 84, to Launch ‘Encouraging Word’ Videos

By Chris Moon At 84 years old—and after 62 years in ministry—Bob Chitwood is having no problem keeping up with the times. The pastor at Brownville Christian Church in Nebraska has been using the COVID-19 pandemic to take his church’s ministry to Facebook. Each week, Chitwood produces an 8- to 10-minute video he calls “An Encouraging Word,” where Chitwood shares a gospel principle at various locations around the tiny town of Brownville. He went to a local vineyard and winery and discussed Jesus as the true vine. He went down by the Missouri River to discuss the river of life.

February 22, 2020

Tina Wilson

How to Use Social Media Well in Your Church

By Tina Wilson If your church isn’t using social media—and using it well—you’re likely missing a great opportunity. Social media is the widest form of advertising available—and it costs little to nothing. Early on, social media may have been used mostly by younger people, but these platforms have expanded so much that most people across generations now get their information from them. The reach of social media is broad with regard to age and target audience. Social media speaks to church members and seekers alike, while most communication from the church—bulletins, email blasts, billboards—target one or the other. Beyond the

February 22, 2020

Jerry Harris

Technology and the Church

By Jerry Harris Modern technology is an incredible thing, and it’s especially impressive to someone my age. When I was a child, I used to wonder at the people I knew who were around before airplanes, mass-production of cars, and the discovery of antibiotics. With technology developing at light speed, I have become one of those people today that young people look at quizzically. I grew up when cars had painted steel dashboards, pointy control knobs, and a shelf beneath the back window for kids to sleep on during drives. The only “airbag” in our car was my mother’s arm

November 2, 2019

Laura McKillip Wood

Laura-McKillip-Wood

Innovative Disciple-Making Using Social Media

By Laura McKillip Wood The smell of fresh bread and pastries wafted around Eugene* as he stepped through the bakery door in Banja Luka, Bosnia. Shelves of baked goods lined one wall, and people quietly spoke with the cashier as they made their purchases. Eugene noticed two young men his age standing near him. One man wore a jacket with the name of a band on it. “I like that band,” Eugene said. After chatting for a moment, Eugene sat down with David and Petar. They drank coffee and talked about their shared love of music. As they prepared to

September 4, 2019

Christian Standard

Small Tennessee Church Oversees Big Laundry Ministry

By Jim Nieman A women’s group at a church of about 35 in Rogersville, Tenn., started a ministry in 2016 that has grown like, well . . . a pile of laundry. The Rogersville Laundry Ministry began as a once-a-month outreach to people at a local laundromat and has developed into a weekly endeavor that relies on dozens of volunteers from several churches to serve hundreds of people at two laundromats. “Our church’s mission is ‘Loving People to Jesus,’” said Dawnel Newhouse of First Christian Church of Rogersville. “Basically, it’s what we’re trying to do” with the laundry ministry. But

August 22, 2019

Christian Standard

SPOTLIGHT: Creekside Community Church, Hot Springs, Ark.

By Melissa Wuske “The community knows who we are,” said Mark Maybrey, lead minister of Creekside Community Church, Hot Springs, Arkansas. “From day one, all of us in our core group of 18 people have had a missional heart for the community.” Starting with those 18 people in 2015, the church now averages about 90 each Sunday. The key in this busy resort town is meeting people where they are. When Maybrey moved to Hot Springs, people told him, “There’s always something to do. Your kids are going to love it.” But nothing prepared him for the shock that first

August 22, 2019

Christian Standard

Connecting the ‘Vast Areas’: 5 Tips for Effectively Using Social Media in Rural Ministry

By Rob O’Lynn America is becoming more urbanized, but roughly 60 million people still live in “vast areas” classified as rural. How can Christian churches effectively connect with people who are relatively few and far between? Social media should be a primary method. Unfortunately, it’s a method country and small-town churches have been slow to embrace. Here are five thoughts on how to harness the Internet and use it to make your church an influential voice for God in your rural region. 1. Structure Your Engagement All social media is relational. I’m not speaking just of Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, or

May 22, 2019

Kent E. Fillinger

Kent E. Fillinger

‘Can They Hear Us Now?’

By Kent E. Fillinger I grew up in the 1970s when the average American home had no computer, the Internet was little more than an idea, and smartphones had not been invented. Our black-and-white family TV had four channels: the three major networks and the local PBS station. By 2015, the average American home with a TV could access about 200 channels and three-quarters of households subscribed to broadband Internet. By 2018, 77 percent of Americans owned a smartphone, according to Pew Research Center. Since the introduction of Facebook in 2004, the proliferation of social media sites and other apps

May 8, 2019

Christian Standard

Florida Students Rescued by Aptly Named Boat

Florida Students Rescued by Aptly Named Boat Two high school seniors from Christ’s Church Academy—affiliated with Christ’s Church in Jacksonville, Fla.—endured a harrowing ocean adventure and were rescued by a boat with a fitting name.  The pair were swimming near Vilano Beach when they discovered they were too tired to make it back to shore.  “We were just going for a normal swim,” Heather Brown told ABC News. “But the current kept taking us, and we didn’t realize it until we were completely off track.” Brown and Tyler Smith were stuck at sea for an hour and a half, during which they prayed that God would save them

May 26, 2018

Christian Standard

You Found Me: Reaching College Students on Their Level

By Greg Swinney and Beth Swinney He was scrolling down his Facebook page on a computer in the university library when I nudged him and asked if I could bother him for a few minutes. Tom looked over and immediately stopped what he was doing and said, “Sure, what’s up?” I knew I could count on Tom, a prelaw student, to level with me. “What are college kids looking for these days in a church?” I asked. “I’m scratching my head to figure that one out.” Tom didn’t flinch. He said, “We are looking for a place that’s real. A

February 25, 2018

Shawn McMullen

Civil Liberty: How Christ Frees Us to Be Civil in Less-than-Civil Times

By Shawn McMullen You’re driving down the highway and notice a silver Honda in the passing lane traveling a few miles per hour below the speed limit, impeding the progress of the gray Toyota behind it. When the Toyota gets a break in the line of traffic, its driver veers quickly into the other lane, moves in front of the Honda, and taps his brakes, causing the driver of the Honda to brake and swerve into the berm. The party of four at their lunch table simply can’t be pleased. They complain loudly to one another throughout the meal: the

Secret Link