So, the biggest complaint among older people is how people post deeply disturbing details of their state of mind (pictures like below) on Facebook. Yet, the other day over a meal someone was talking specific details about the problem with their pancreas or colon. In both instances, these are examples of relationship building. Listening. Supporting. Loving. This can be a bridge of communication.
Crazy schedules and a lifestyle of doing will wear you out. Creating new habits means starting the week out right. Every Monday and Tuesday of my new job and new schedule, I start out with reading a chapter in the Bible and sitting quietly. I want to listen to what God would tell me rather than fill the silence with my words.
In my mind, it’s not how often you read the Bible, but how you spend quality time reading the Bible. I do deeper study through books and leadership development courses, but something about simply reading the Bible in prayer and listening helps me keep peace. Monday and Tuesdays are my intimate times with the Lord.
How do you spend time learning the Bible and listening to the Lord?
Since the beginning of December, I’ve been running active ministries and looking for a new job. I’ve also been praying and working to raise my support numbers.
God continues to work on the hearts of those He wants to use to support my work. I have a couple of verbal supports and I am at 22% support. It’s been tough to get everything done. The job hunting has taken away valuable free time, and I am pleased to say my prayers were answered.
Last week, I began my first week at a new job. The hours work well with ministry and I am slowly getting a feel for what my new schedule will look like with WorldVenture. I won’t say publicly where I am working as they are sensitive to the brand reputation of their company. It is my desire to keep my social media activity unconnected to the job. What I post is my own and not reflective of the company I work for.
I leave my role at Solid Rock Christian Fellowship as a church secretary to becoming Solid Rock’s church-supported Social Media Mentor (part of WorldVenture’s organization).
As a friend pointed out, “Working for money will make you miserable.” I do what I love and love what I do.
Will you continue praying for me?
From Sunday, March 26 to Monday, March 27, I will be on a social media fast. On Monday, I will check in online but it will be in the evening. During this time, pray that the Lord will impress on me next steps and that my creativity gets a refresh.
Some prayer requests for this week:
A new job means new disciplines. New hours means reassessing how I do my work with WorldVenture and how I fit in my work outs to stay healthy. I can’t serve if I am not healthy enough to have the energy. Raising financial partners, working full time, and serving with WorldVenture tends to take a lot of energy. This requires a good diet and regular exercise.
Not that I don’t have enough to do, but now I am assessing for several ministries a plan on how they can use social media and work together to share the Gospel and grow the churches in the area through social media. Like I said in posts past, I have two short meetings to finalize the plan and a weekend training session.
Then, I let go.
One person can’t share the Gospel online. 300 international workers can’t serve online by themselves. If the stats are correct that there is one international worker per one million people, it is our stubbornness that keeps our church bodies from using the social media they are already on strategically, authentically, and cross-culturally. People like us who know social media can train people to use it. It’s not how many social media apps you have on your phone; it is how effectively you use one app that makes the difference.
Unlike other jobs, I give notice to Solid Rock Christian Fellowship after almost 11 years with a heart heavy with so many emotions. I know that where I am going is where God wants me to be in the interim before I launch as a Social Media person with WorldVenture. Other doors closed this week, too. Not that I can go into any detail, but an old life is fading and a new life is beginning.
Change is something a person can count on. It’s a constant. I’ve experienced so much change the last couple of years. It leaves me breathless. Even as I watch winter fade into spring, I am excited for the future. When I sing songs in church, I hear them differently now. It begs the question: Are you really living on faith? I mean, really?
Lastly, are you really impassioned about sharing your faith? I mean, really? I ask this because when I mention the online world and how people can funnel that passion through this tool to share the Gospel, I get one common response: “I don’t like change.” This usually follows after, “I hate Facebook.”
“I hate change,” is a barrier I come up against time and time again. It’s not just a barrier to what I do, but it is a barrier that keeps people from learning how to use the online world as a tool to build relationships and share their faith. Social media is simply a conversation. It’s like meeting someone in the hallway and asking, “How are you?” And instead of walking away after a short answer, staying to listen.
The church isn’t dying. The church has a communication problem. This problem is keeping the church in a building and causing people who are online to sound like angry Americans because the church isn’t learning how to train their people how to use the online world in appropriate ways or teaching how to contextualize responses to another person’s culture.
I would love to hear how your church is training your congregation to serve online. If you aren’t training them, why not?
When I read devotions, it’s always talking about using different words; find a new narrative in your head; because using different words will change how you think and feel. People, especially older adults, think of the online world as self-serving instead of serving.
If the narrative in your head is “self-serving,” you will spend less time on it, not use it strategically, and make that face you make when someone mentions social media. It’s not about becoming relevant as a church, but getting involved in people’s lives. You can keep your involvement simple or learn marketing to cast a broader net. I’ve found that God will direct you to certain social media apps if your heart is willing to serve.
What does serving online look like?
Communication is a big problem. People under use the tool or spend all their time marketing. Any tool can be negative, but it’s up to the church to use this tool to bring the people online into a fellowship of faith. If you don’t use this tool, someone else will.
Newsletters are done differently with me. Others in my position may send out a newsletter monthly or quarterly (even once a year). Every person should read articles on newsletter marketing. With an average of 50% open rate, newsletters shouldn’t be your only form of communication, but it should be sent out frequently in short bursts for various reasons. I segment my newsletters to respect those that only want to hear from me once a month to those that enjoy reading my devotions at weekly.
My newsletters are also a part of my ministry. Newsletters can influence people. It can provide support and prayer. You can encourage or inform someone with your newsletter. Every person who writes a newsletter should learn how to tell stories. Here’s how it works:
My digest newsletter that is sent out on the first day of each month (or that week) gives my prayer requests in brief and also shares the prayer requests from those who have signed up for my newsletter. Links from missed newsletters are also included in case you wish to read them. Upcoming events are shared. This is kept short and to the point.
My weekly newsletters are usually medium length with videos or photos. They are written devotional-style, sharing a story from the field, prayer requests, thoughts from morning devotions, reminders of upcoming events, or challenges I am facing. If you open my newsletters more than once per month, you are automatically put on this list. Mail Chimp has a rating system and auto updates my lists.
If you would like to get a bigger picture, sign up here for my newsletter. Otherwise, to really get a clear picture of what I am doing with WorldVenture, please attend one of my Living Room Sessions. These happen once monthly.
For those of you already on the newsletter, your prayer requests are due the last day of the month to be included in the digest newsletter.
Note to churches: If you need to print something for your records, I suggest using the monthly digest as it gives a listing rather than a story of what is happening and upcoming. I also do not post everything online. If you follow me on Facebook or my other social media platforms, they do not give the whole picture or share everything that is happening behind the scenes. For an accurate picture, subscribe here.
Before becoming appointed with WorldVenture, I unsuccessfully tried to bring attention to the importance of social media to the churches as an individual and a struggling writer. After the appointment, attitudes changed towards me. I seldom heard the words, “playing” in association with using social media.
At WorldVenture’s annual Renewal Conference in Denver, Colorado, I realized that God will use me for much more than my original plan. In talking to different missionaries and answering their questions, I saw their eyes open and understanding occur when they realized how social media could be used to grow church plants in their country. Even “retired” missionaries can use the online world to continue sharing God’s love through discipleship.
With the advantage missionaries have of understanding the culture, they won’t have the same communication issues we in the United States may have when using social media to talk to someone from another culture or country. We, on the other hand, must learn the culture through experience, books, and classes like Kairos or Perspectives. Another problem exists even if one does know the culture.
A language barrier is between those of us who do social media and those who do not, and the cure is education and the willingness to serve online; to change and adapt according to the needs in the field (i.e. your community, your church, your church plant, your country).
Social media is about connection. People are aching, even needing to connect. They want conversation. They want to belong. This is why I have started free Facebook classes: To educate people on the point of social media and to mobilize the church body to reach the unreached, the unloved, and the unchurched online (I have one caveat though–that people who attend pick up extra brochures to hand out to their friends and church leaders).
For my partnership with WorldVenture to be successful, I need to build up financial support. God is developing this ministry into much more than I previously thought and fruit is already bearing even at part time. This would not have happened without WorldVenture’s guidance. Working with a team is amazing!
How can you help me?
Be part of what God is doing in technology. Help me help the church and grow my partnership with WorldVenture for God’s limitless possibilities!
“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve…” says Mark 10:45. As I let this verse sink into my heart, I realized I have always glossed over it. I nod, agree, and move on, without really letting it sink in.
If God came to serve rather than be served, why are we (humans) still expecting people to come to us, through our church doors, to our programs?
On the ministry side of things, I serve wholeheartedly, but on the personal side of things, sometimes, I allow myself to be served. I let laziness instruct my actions.
These are my faults. It’s easy to be served, but not so simple to serve. The common response in churches can be, “Why should I (put your complaint here); why not them?” With this attitude, who is going to cross that bridge to make connections first if we are waiting for them to respond? If no one crosses that bridge to make peace, no peace exists. Your resentment is real to have to make an effort, but regardless, what are we supposed to do as people of faith?
“For even the Son of man did not come to be served,” Mark reminds us, “but to serve…” This doesn’t mean we become someone else’s door mat. As the opportunity presents itself to show love, we should ask the Holy Spirit to give us direction and motivation.
As for my personal life, I can’t promise I will faithfully put the receipts where they belong, get the dishes done in time, or always let serving trump laziness, but I do try. It’s a journey. My husband is my most important relationship on this earth, second only to my relationship with God.
I want to honor those that I love with my actions, even those I do not love, not to make a point, but to live out my faith as Jesus tells me, because He loves THEM.