Home Pastors Articles for Pastors 7 Reminders for Pastors and Ministry Leaders Who Use Social Media

7 Reminders for Pastors and Ministry Leaders Who Use Social Media

7 Reminders for Pastors and Ministry Leaders who use Social Media

Can I be honest? I’m not always the biggest fan of social media.

I know you have a hard time believing this if you follow me on Facebook (either my profile or one of my pages—I have several), Twitter (and I have a couple of those), LinkedIn, Instagram or Pinterest. How could I not love social media. I wouldn’t have a blog without social media—and I do love my blog. Well, at least, I love the potential impact of my blog.

What I don’t like are some of the negative impacts of social media. It seems people lose their filter when they are online. They must feel a certain anonymity—even though their name is on their account. As I’ve posted before, some people show their mean side online—saying things they never would say without this medium making it so easy to do.

But, I would assume social media is here for a while. And it’s certainly a part of our lives. And wherever people are, I want to be as much as I can. Because I’ve been called to reach people.

So, if it’s here, and an almost necessity these days in ministry, it stands to reason that we should keep in mind its impact and how this should influence our use of social media. That’s the purpose of this post.

Here are seven reminders for pastors and ministry leaders on social media:

You represent Christ and the church. Even when you’re on your personal page—what you post tells people something about the church. If you’re angry online you are demonstrating to people how they expect Christ to respond to them.

You influence people. If you are in a ministry leadership position, you have positional influence. People look to you for answers and how they should live their life as believers.

This is a gray area for sure, and strictly my opinion, but as an example, one thing which drives me crazy is to see pastors post how they are enjoying not having to go to church on vacation. (“Having a great time at the beach—I needed this today.”) I’d almost rather see a post which says, “Loved worshiping with Beach Community Church today.” It seems more helpful for the role we serve. Yes, we need to lead people to honor their Sabbath, but we also have to be careful not to convince people they need a break from church. They can figure that one out on their own. Plus, biblically speaking, the opposite seems more true—I would argue culturally speaking, people need a lot more church. People who don’t work at church aren’t able to reconcile the amount of time you spend at church with the amount of time they do.