Lost Locality and Counterfeit Community Exemplification

For the last few years I have felt this odd, intangible problem with how Christians and churches interact with social media. It's one that I’ve never quite been able to pinpoint, but has been continually sitting in the back of my mind. Chances are, there are a few of you reading this that may have a similar experience. I’ve become frustrated with the lack of discussion around Christians and social media. Something about the overwhelming adoption of social media into church practices and individual Christian’s life (my own included) just hasn’t sat quite right with me. So, I set out to put words to this ethereal issue I have been sitting with. Here is what I have found. It seems that social media have become a prime source of influence in many Christians lives. In fact, many of us Christians interact virtually the same with these platforms as our unbelieving counterparts. Whether or not this is a purposeful shift of influence on our behalf, this occurs for one reason; what us Christians spend their time with becomes what we are influenced by. Now this is not simply an individual point, but one that impacts our larger Christian community, that is, the Church. Now, is this a problem? Yes. Anything in a Christian’s life that shifts prime influence away from God himself, the Holy Scriptures, and the community of the Church threatens to be a problem. So, yes, this is a problem. Social media’s influence on the community of the Church, has indeed become a reality for many of us Christians and our churches. This stretches further though. Many local churches have left this problem unsuccessfully addressed. Herein lies the problem. When local churches are not addressing or unsuccessfully addressing the actual realities that their members live in, it leaves those realities open for other ecosystems of influence to speak into with authority, whether that authority be biblically warranted or not. Why does this matter? When any platform is giving such large acceptance in Christian life, it is important to evaluate the platform through the lens of Scripture. As Christians we believe that God gave us the Bible to reveal himself to us and to show us how to live our lives as faithful followers of Him. Therefore, we know and believe that we can look to the Bible to guide us and give us wisdom with how to live our daily lives. Therefore, we must look first to what Scripture calls us Christians to. If we neglect to do this, we run the risk of allowing a platform to take the seat of main influence in our lives and churches. This, we know, is a spot reserved for none other than God himself through the Holy Spirit’s working in our lives. So I encourage you, faithful Christian, do not sit to the side in either blind indifference or purposeful inclusion of social media. If these platforms have indeed become so accepted in the Christian sphere, they must first be held up to the lens of Scripture and evaluated before their inclusion into our lives and churches. So, let us look biblically. What are we called to as Christians? The call of Christians is a call to many things, but I want to talk specifically about the call to local churches and genuine community. The call of the Christian is a call to community and fellowship with God and believers. How is this sort of genuine, rich, biblical community created? It is simply one word, presence. Repetitive, devoted, physical, embodied presence is what establishes community. This may seem straightforward to some, to many of us this may feel like a distant reality we once knew (we have become far too familiar with the lack of this while living through COVID), and still to others the importance of this concept is completely foreign. Biblical community revolves around the embodied presence. God himself emphasized this idea greatly when he sent Jesus Christ, embodied, to this world. Jesus Christ lived in physical proximity to the people he ministered to. He spoke face to face with his brothers and sisters. He ate meals at the same table as other people. God himself came to be with man in the flesh. This shows the sheer gravity of actual, physical, embodied presence in community. For us Christians, this sort of community is found, cultivated, and enjoyed in our local churches. It is here where the emphasis lies. The place of prime influence in a believers life is to be God himself, the Holy Scriptures, and the Body of Christ. The Body of Christ is our gathering of genuine community in our local churches. What should local churches be doing as a source of prime influence in the Christian’s life? We do this through meeting together in person in embodied relationships (Hebrews 11:24), encouraging one another to love and do good works glorifying to God (Hebrews 11:25), practicing hospitality towards our neighbors, believers and unbelievers alike (1 Peter 4:9), confessing our sins to each other (James 5:16), praying with and for each other (James 5:16), reading of God’s Word together (Acts 2:42), sharing a meal (Acts 2:42), practicing communion (Luke 22:19), teaching and admonishing one another in wisdom (Colossians 3:16), singing with and to one another in psalms, hymns, and songs of praise (Ephesians 5:19), sharing our lives closely with each other (1Thessalonians 2:8), proclaiming the Gospel (1Thessalonians 2:8), pursuing discipleship (Matthew 28:19), and baptizing one another (Matthew 28:20). Christian, we, ourselves, are the local church, so it is not only the leadership that must emphasize this, but you and every member of the church that must live out these biblical commands. So faithful Christian, I ask you, what is your source of prime influence in life? Is it God himself and the Holy Bible through the local church? Is it the genuine biblical community that you live in with other believers? Please be honest with yourself here. God’s grace welcomes you to be honest here. If social media has become a distraction from what God has called you to as a Christian, set it aside.