This document discusses communicating the gospel through various modern mediums, particularly social media. It begins by establishing a framework of incarnational, cruciform ministry where Christians embody and proclaim Jesus. It then addresses how narratives are shaped by different mediums and the importance of understanding these influences. The task is described as knowing the rules and impacts of various mediums, discerning appropriate limits, crucifying self-seeking narratives, and prioritizing real relationships over superficial online interactions. Social media ministry is framed as creating empowering content, curating it generously and authentically to share the gospel through photos, stories and links in a way that pursues costly relationships and writes with clarity and charity.
6. The Living God who speaks
"And God said…”
Genesis 1:3, 6, 9,
14, 20, 24, 26
7. The living images of the living God
“Let us make mankind in our image, in our
likeness so that they may rule over the fish in
the sea and the birds in the sky, over the
livestock and all the wild animals, and over all
the creatures that move along the ground.”
Genesis 1:26
8. The living, speaking, images of the
living God
“He brought them to the man to see
what he would name them; and
whatever the man called each living
creature, that was its name.”
Genesis 2:19
9.
10. The living God who speaks: Word
“In the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was with God, and the Word was
God. He was with God in the
beginning… The Word became flesh and
made his dwelling among us.”
John 1:1, 14
11. The living God who speaks: Image
“The Son is the image of the invisible
God, the firstborn over all creation.”
Colossians 1:15
12. The Living God who speaks: Multimedia
“In the past God spoke to our ancestors
through the prophets at many times and
in various ways, but in these last days
he has spoken to us by his Son…”
Hebrews 1:1-2
14. Speaking like God
“What we have received is not the spirit
of the world, but the Spirit who is from
God, so that we may understand what
God has freely given us…”
1 Cor 2:12-14
15. Speaking like God
“This is what we speak, not in words
taught us by human wisdom but in
words taught by the Spirit, explaining
spiritual realities with Spirit-taught
words.”
1 Cor 2:12-14
16. Speaking like God
“The person without the Spirit does not
accept the things that come from the
Spirit of God but considers them
foolishness, and cannot understand
them because they are discerned only
through the Spirit.”
1 Cor 2:12-14
18. Communicating like God
“In your relationships with one another,
have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God
something to be used to his own
advantage;”
19. Communicating like God
“…rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.”
Philippians 2
20. Communicating Like God
“Though I am free and belong to no one, I
have made myself a slave to everyone, to
win as many as possible… I have
become all things to all people so that by
all possible means I might save some.
1 Corinthians 9:19, 22
21. Communicating Like God
“And he has committed to us the
message of reconciliation. We are
therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as
though God were making his appeal
through us.”
2 Corinthians 5:20-21
24. Communicating like God
“And being found in appearance as a
man, he humbled himself by becoming
obedient to death—even death on a
cross!”
Philippians 2
25. Communicating like God
“For the message of the cross is
foolishness to those who are perishing,
but to us who are being saved it is the
power of God.”
1 Corinthians 1:18
26. Communicating like God
“When I came to you, I did not come with
eloquence or human wisdom as I
proclaimed to you the testimony about God.
For I resolved to know nothing while I was
with you except Jesus Christ and him
crucified.”
1 Corinthians 2:3-4
27. Communicating like God
“I came to you in weakness with great
fear and trembling. My message and my
preaching were not with wise and
persuasive words, but with a
demonstration of the Spirit’s power.”
1 Corinthians 2:3-4
28. Communicating like God
“For we who are alive are always
being given over to death for Jesus’
sake, so that his life may also be
revealed in our mortal body.”
2 Corinthians 4:11
29. Communicating like God
May I never boast except in the cross of
our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the
world has been crucified to me, and I to
the world… From now on, let no one
cause me trouble, for I bear on my body
the marks of Jesus.
Galatians 6
30. Communicating like God
Then you will shine among them like stars
in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of
life.
Philippians 2:15-16
31. Communicating like God
Then youse will shine among them like
stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the
word of life.
Philippians 2:15-16
32. Communicating like God
“Incarnation means that God enables
divinity to embody humanity. Christians,
like Jesus, are God’s incarnations, God’s
temples, tabernacling in human flesh
(John 1:14; Phil. 2:3-8).
Gailyn Van Rheenen
33. Communicating like God
“Christians, spiritually transformed into the
image of God, carry out God’s ministry in
God’s way. Frequently incarnationalists
relate to seekers from other world religions
personally and empathetically ...”
Gailyn Van Rheenen
34. Communicating like God
“Sometimes, however, they declare
God’s social concerns by shaking up
the status quo and “cleaning out the
temple.” The end result of incarnation
in a non-Christian world is always
some form of crucifixion.”
Gailyn Van Rheenen
35.
36. Communicating Like God
The Framework:
Incarnate, cruciform, image bearers
accommodating others as we
proclaim Jesus together.
37. Communicating Like God
“You yourselves are our letter, written
on our hearts, known and read by
everyone. You show that you are a
letter from Christ, the result of our
ministry, written not with ink but with
the Spirit of the living God.”
2 Corinthians 3:2-3
38. Communicating Like God
“And we all, who with unveiled faces
contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being
transformed into his image with ever-
increasing glory, which comes from the
Lord, who is the Spirit.”
2 Corinthians 3:18
48. Narrative shaping
“Media aren’t just channels of
information. They supply the
stuff of thought, but they also
shape the process of thought.”
Nicholas Carr, The Shallows
54. Narrative shaping
“Our conventional response to all
media, namely that it is how they
are used that counts, is the numb
stance of the technological idiot.”
Marshall McLuhan
55. Narrative shaping
When we go online, we, too, are
following scripts written by others—
algorithmic instructions that few of us
would be able to understand even if
the hidden codes were revealed to us.
Nicholas Carr, The Shallows
57. Narrative shaping
“Do not conform to the pattern of this
world, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind.”
Romans 12:2
58. Shaped by a new Narrative
“The medium is the message”
Marshall McLuhan
59. Shaped by a new Narrative
“In Jesus Christ, there is no distance or
separation between the medium and the
message: it is the one case where we
can say that the medium and the
message are fully one and the same.”
Marshall McLuhan
61. Communicating Like God
The Framework:
Incarnate, cruciform, image bearers
accommodating others as we
proclaim Jesus together.
62. Know the mediums
“What are the rules of the medium and what
are the underlying messages and patterns
that emerge from those rules?“
John Dyer,
From the Garden To The City
63. Know the mediums
“We use Google to search for secret things, to
investigate what other people are saying
about our deepest darkest secrets, interests
and curiosities. Google Image search is filled
with pictures of pets doing hilarious things,
while Google search serves up results on the
great ocean of porn out there on the Web.”
Jonah Peretti,
Buzzfeed Founder
64. Know the mediums
Facebook, on the other hand, is a projection
of our social relationships and behavior.
Together, they generally represent and are a
metaphor for the two ways we use the
Internet.
Jonah Peretti,
Buzzfeed Founder
65. Know the mediums
On Facebook, the same person who is
looking at stories involving nude pics, is also
looking at and sharing inspiring stories about
victims overcoming disabilities and so on,
along with politically-motivated stories.
Jonah Peretti,
Buzzfeed Founder
71. The perils of clicktivism
“Be careful not to practice your righteousness
in front of others to be seen by them. If you
do, you will have no reward from your Father
in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do
not announce it with trumpets, as the
hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the
streets, to be honored by others.”
Matthew 6
72. Value presence over absence
“I have much to write to you, but I do
not want to use paper and ink.
Instead, I hope to visit you and talk
with you face to face, so that our joy
may be complete.”
2 John 1:12