I don’t want anything to do with Social Media!


I have recently re-joined the Rotary Club in Hillsville and some things have changed since I was a member just a couple of years ago.  Rotary now has what is called “Rotary e-Club”. This is very similar to what we are seeing in internet churches, etc…

I am not going to try and get you to join Rotary, however if you are interested, see me.

No, my whole point in this post is to bring to the surface the importance of Social Networking. It is important in Rotary and it is important in church. So many people want nothing to do with things like blogs, facebook, etc… When a person says this to me, “I don’t know anything about facebook or blogs and I don’t want to know” and they are in the people business, like churches, Rotary, clubs, etc, then this concerns me greatly.

You see, the gospel never changes. Sin entered the world through Adam and Eve, God put in place a system of sacrifices in the Older testament and then in the New Testament God came into this world in the form of a man (Jesus Christ), he walked among the people, he experienced the things that we experience, and then he died on a cross as the ultimate sacrifice for our sin. Past, Present, and Future, he died for all of it.

This message never changes, BUT the way we get this message across does have to change in order to communicate with people who were not born in the same year we were, or maybe they were born in the year we were and they have learned the new culture and embraced the possibilities.

I personally have embraced the possibilities we have in social networking. I have a very active facebook page and a very active blog. I actually pastor a group of teens through social media. We are in constant contact, not a day goes by that I don’t hear from several teens who are reaching out to say hello, ask a question, or request help and prayer.

Anyway, I started this rampage because of a great article I read online at Rotary e-club today and here are some of the quotes. I get statements all the time from people who say that real fellowship is not happening online, that people are not getting to know each other online, that it is not real communication.

“It is this difference that often causes Rotarians unfamiliar with being connected online to ask how fellowship can be achieved if there is no ‘face to face’ contact? That is like asking a sight impaired person how effective ‘one to one’ communication can be achieved where there is no visual contact, or like asking a daughter whether the daily phone call with her mother counts as ‘keeping in touch’.”

“As it happens, whereas online members do not connect weekly ‘face to face’, they are regularly connecting and conversing more often than not daily by email! Supplemented by regular webinars and interaction by ‘blogging’ in the clubhouse, regular and vigorous intra-personal communication is very much alive and well.”

“Based on my own personal experience over the past seven years as a member of Rotary E-Club One (a club now with 56 members residing in nine countries straddling the geographic provenances of North America, UK/Europe/Asia, Africa and Australia), I have got to know my fellow Rotarians with whom I communicate electronically on a daily basis far better than with those I met reasonably regularly when I was previously a member of a traditional Rotary club.”

“Therefore, there should be no doubt that Rotarians help provide service through fellowship. Moreover, Rotary International now promotes the notion that social networking is one of the many ways Rotarians are connecting online.”

No, the church is not Rotary, but we are a social organization. We have people and we want to connect people to Christ and to each other. Social Media is a good way to do that and I am living proof.

Ronnie

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