Social media is a powerful tool for communicating and connecting with our friends online. Most of us probably use Facebook along with Twitter, YouTube, and even Google Plus.
It’s also a powerful tool for sharing Christ with our unsaved friends. A missions field doesn’t just have to be across the ocean or in even in your town. With the Internet, you can now reach people around the world with only a few keystrokes.
Over the next several weeks I’ll be sharing some practical ideas for how you can use Facebook and social media in general to bring God up in conversations with unsaved friends. Once you’ve tried some of these things personally, you will then be in a position to share your experiences with your students and help them do the same
We know photographs can be powerful tools to help you engage with the spiritual stories in people’s lives. Something unique happens when we look at an image. A photo evokes emotions and often stirs up a response in us. It conjures up associations that are as unique as we are because our experience shapes what we see. Photos can help people express themselves, and be more open to share their lives and where they are at in their spiritual journeys.
Try gathering some of your artsy, photography youth group kids together and think of a series of photos that could, in some way, share the gospel. Go out together and shoot that gallery of photos and then have the kids upload them to a photo gallery on Facebook. They could even tag some of their “pre-saved” friends and ask them to give some feedback in the comments below the images.
Maybe use the description text of the photo gallery on Facebook to ask questions like this:
- Which image best describes your life right now?
- Which image best portrays what you wish were a part of your life?
- Which image best describes God to you?
- Which image best describes what you’ve experienced spiritually?
- Which image best describes what you wish were true of your spiritual life/journey?
A couple years ago, a high school student named, Michael Rothermel, did this very thing. Download the photographs Michael Rothermel took and used to tell a spiritual story in pictures on his Facebook profile.
Check out the rest of this “using facebook” series:
- Part 2/3: Using Videos to Share the Gospel on Facebook
- Part 3/3: Using Facebook Notes and Updates to Share Christ Online
Brainstorm in the comments below other ways we can use photo galleries on Facebook to spark spiritual conversations with our unsaved friends. If you’ve seen any of your students do something like this, we’d love to hear that story, too!
