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Jun 25
2009
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Facebook EvangelismPosted by: Glen Chancy Tagged in: social networking , Orthodoxy , Orthodox podcasts , Orthodox media , Orthodox evangelism , Facebook , Come Receive the Light
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The Great Commission wasn’t a suggestion. It was a commandment. We are to share the Orthodox Faith with the entire world. But how are we supposed to reach people? Stand on a soapbox on a street corner? Go door-to-door? Visit the sick, the needy, the elderly? Those are all good things that are worth doing. But did you ever think about using your Facebook account to spread Orthodoxy?
Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites are all the rage. People use them to find lost friends, connect with others with similar interests, and as an easy way to keep everyone updated with the latest news. Facebook users have an average of 281 friends in their personal networks. That means one Facebook user is capable of getting a personal message out to literally hundreds, sometimes thousands, of people.
Now compare that online world to the real one. How many people do you really interact with on a daily basis? In my case, a few dozen at the most. I go to work, see some folks around the office, and head home. My primary activities outside work are focused on my parish. Since most of the people I meet at the parish are already Orthodox, the fact is that I don’t have a lot of face-to-face evangelism opportunities in my daily routine.
Which is why Facebook and other social networking sites open up so many opportunities. I would be classified as someone who is heavily involved in Orthodoxy. I run Orthodox Websites, I blog on Orthodox topics, and I even serve on my parish council. But even so, only ¼ of my Facebook friends are actually Orthodox. Looking at the whole list, fully ¾ of the people I am friends with on Facebook are not Orthodox Christians.
How is that possible? They are friends from high school and college mostly. But some are friends I’ve met in business and professional settings. Others are friends from the Republican Party, and still others friended me because they liked something I wrote about the Middle East. This is a mission field, and I take it very seriously as one. You should too.
I don’t get pushy with it. I don’t publish long posts about Orthodoxy or about the Church fathers. I don’t need to, because top-notch material is already being produced by media ministries like the Orthodox Christian Network. All I have to do is share it with my Facebook friends. I use one of the social bookmarking links on the OCN site (or Orthodox Biz, or any of the Orthodox Blogs I read), and include a short commentary on why I like the particular piece.
The most recent piece I put out was the Beyond the Veil episode talking about the Rapture as a purely made-up fantasy. Most of my non-Orthodox friends are Evangelicals, and most of them believe fervently in the Rapture. By putting out that article on my Facebook and on Digg, I brought this scholarly Orthodox podcast to their attention. Many of them listened to it, and then stuck around the myocn.net site to learn more about other topics. I got into a lively debate with some of them on Facebook, which then attracted even more of my friends to pay attention to Orthodox teaching on the end-times.
I am not an expert on the way the Early Church viewed the Book of Revelations. I am not an expert in Patristic Theology, the nature of Creation, the struggles of the early Christian communities in a hostile Roman world, or the meaning behind all of what we do in the Divine Liturgy.
But I don’t have to be an expert on all those topics. That is the beauty of Facebook evangelism. I just have to point my friends to the real experts in these fields, and then be there to answer questions the best I can. If I get into trouble, then I can do a reach-out to my priest, or even to the OCN contributor whose work I am recommending to my friends. I don’t have to be a Theologian, or even a good writer. All I have to do is honestly pass along things which I think are spiritually beneficial for my friends and acquaintances.
Of all the things we are called do for the Kingdom of God, Facebook evangelism is likely to be among the most effortlessly effective. So start sharing, and may the electronic mission field be ripe for the harvesting!
Glen Chancy is the Webmaster of the Orthodox Christian Network, publisher of Orthodox Biz and CIO of CorFun.com - an eServices and software development company. Glen has been Orthodox since 2000, and attends the Orthodox Church of St. Stephen the Protomartyr (OCA) in Longwood, Florida.
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written by Glen Chancy, July 20, 2009
But what does it say about you when you post yourself as Orthodox, and then join in games like "Mafia Wars?" We have to think about the conflicting messages we send, even in our virtual lives.
Not very much, to be honest. I was at a meeting last night where a priest talked about how valuable the cassock was in keeping him free of sin. By constantly wearing the cassock, he stands out too much for him to yield to temptation. If he suddenly goes to the magazine rack in the mall and looks at inappropriate material, then everyone will instantly know. The cassock makes him stronger, by making it harder for him to sin.
I think the same thing needs to be applied to our online lives. If we profess Orthodoxy in our virtual lives, then it should make it harder for us to sin in the virtual space (where a lot of sin is happening now). Why? Because before we flame someone on FB for a comment, we have to remember that we have posted about Christian love. Before we post off-color jokes, we remember that we have posted links to Orthodox sites. Our online identity can help keep us on the narrow, if we keep it in the forefront of our thoughts.
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written by Jeff Jenkins, August 17, 2009
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written by Jeff Holton, October 01, 2009
I became Orthodox partly because of blogging interactions early this decade, so I understand the power of interaction.
I use FB to advertise my posts and share a bit with others. I'm always pleasantly surprised at the non-Orthodox who come back to me with respectful and insightful questions and comments. I haven't counted to see what percentage of my contacts are Orthodox, but I doubt it's anywhere near half. Although I *am* using FB for *networking* primarily, the evangelism angle isn't lost.
I appreciated that priest's comments on his cassock. I occasionally have to view my Cross similarly, as a sort of pre-guilt-trip, cheapening perhaps, but quite effective at intervening in sin. When it comes to the Internet, it's very important for us all to consider that everything posted there lasts forever, and that we have an opportunity to build our reputations and spheres of influence.
I've written a post on doing that with Twitter, but I haven't given any thought until just now on doing the same with Facebook, perhaps with other popular services as well.
[I started every paragraph in this note with "I" or "my." Note to self: cut that out!]
--Jeff
http://jeffholton.com/examiner
http://twitter.com/JeffHolton
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Posting a quote from the fathers as our status update, using an icon as our profile picture- all of these are ways to display our Orthodox faith to others.
But we also have to think carefully about the applications that we choose to use when we are on these sites. There are great applications- like Holy Icons and Theotokos- which allow you to send icons to your friends.
But what does it say about you when you post yourself as Orthodox, and then join in games like "Mafia Wars?" We have to think about the conflicting messages we send, even in our virtual lives.
Another thing to think about- and this requires alot of time and committment- is giving your Churcha virtual presence on Facebook. You have the ability to connect with people who may not have been aware of your Church before, to post and invite peoplet to events, to share photographs- what a great way to evangelize! But it IS time-consuming, and has to be done by someone who has the time to make it work.