Check this out...

I was just reading up on Michael Fletcher's ( Senior Pastor at Manna Church of Fayetteville...an amazing church if I do say so myself ) blog, and he posted something super-relevant as to what churches should strive to do in regards to social media, such as the very blog you are now reading...

And I quote....

I just returned from a conference on social media – made my head swim. Of course, to the young guys I took with me, all of this stuff, the bulk of which was less than five years old, was old hat. They were very underwhelmed. My first take was, “Who has time for all this?” Who has time to tweet every thought that comes into their head, take enough pictures to keep their facebook page interesting, or have enough profound thoughts to post in a daily or weekly blog? BUT, in order to reach this generation, we have to learn to speak the language they speak in the manner in which they speak it. It isn’t about information; its about connection; its about being. You don’t have to be profound or picture perfect or insanely articulate. You just have to be yourself and connect. And once that connection happens (provided it is real and not simply a form or social media manipulation) ministry can happen. The church HAS to get this! Not using social media in this generation is like preaching in a robe in the previous generation. Who has time for this? Who doesn’t? The man who ignores social media will wake up one day in a room by himself preaching a message that no one can hear.

Michael

If someone tried to send me a message via messenger pigeon, I would do two things:

1.) Take a picture

2.) Laugh, and think the person who did this rocks

Okay, scratch that example....but yeah, we need to realize when things become archaic. Most people nowadays do not use VHS ( I do, but we're not going to talk about that right now. ) Even less people use Cassette Tapes, and vehicles are not equipped with this type of technology. Your average technology user goes on MyFace ( Inside joke... ), They Twitter, Post blogs, and has some type of mp3/and or video playing device...in most cases it's their cell phone (Unfortunately, my phone does not quite do all of that...)

If the church remains ignorant of this and just has to do it "The way we've always dun did it" We're going to miss out on a whole generation of people. A good example is my little brother. At the wonderful age of 7, the not-so-little guy knows how to competently use a computer. He can go online to play games, download stuff ( without permission, to my dismay ) and just a lot of other fun things. When I was 7, I could probably barely use a telephone ( But I loved to play Super Nintendo) let alone a computer. Imagine what his generation will be doing when they become teenagers? Piloting giant robots to school? ( Okay, so I'm a bit of an anime nerd...ha ha ha )

We have to be willing to think "outside the box" so to speak, and just get with it. Ask people what they are doing, and use it to advance the Kingdom of God.