The Social Media and Presence

 And yes, the times they are a-changing!  I have never been a fan of any television preacher except Billy Graham.  (I'm telling my age!)   The truth is I am still not but I know when I say that, I am shutting out the way that God may be showing he is a God of the ages!  But I am beginning to read about Joel Osteen and what he brings to ministry besides the fact that he is following in his father's footsteps in a television ministry--which I hurriedly scanned a few times and quickly opted for anything else.

In the last campaign at Marlins Park stadium, seven people in the press box got the word that the prayer requests of the audience were not going through and were in some "digital ether".  People at home who were turning in on Osteen's Night of Hope were grappling with problems that they wanted to share with pray-ers who might have more "evangelical pull" than they did.  At least, it couldn't hurt; it might even help.  In the digital world, people know when there is no one out there answering their prayer, even acknowledging their prayer had been sent in.   Pastors no longer have to buy television time to tell the story;  they can use the social media, which is free, accessible at their fingertips, and growing by leaps and bounds.   There is interaction if it is done right without human mistakes.  It is personal!   One doesn't have to leave home without it!  One does not have to enter a church with it!

It is a perfect vehicle for evangelical Christians.   Both are concentrated on the way that information spreads and both want to manage and/or fashion that information to meet the needs of the culture as they see it.  Is presence a reliable tool of the media?  There are choices to be made by the person who confronts the presence.   And that is always present!