By Diana Kim

With the realization that media, particularly social media, is not going away any time soon, many churches have joined various platforms to promote outreach and inform their communities. Throughout the pandemic, there has been an exponential increase of churches utilizing various digital platforms, including Facebook and Youtube, to livestream their services and document various events, allowing members to participate in spirit. During a time when people could not physically gather together to worship, these media platforms seemed to be a godsend, allowing people to worship in their homes and “gather” for small groups, life groups, and Bible Study while social distancing. 

Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok have also been utilized. Sound bites of sermons, praise songs, and scripture passages, along with their parodies, have made their way into the digital nexus with the use of these various social media platforms. While these brief messages can be great reminders for believers, how beneficial are they for those who have never heard the good news before? Can social media be an effective tool for evangelizing?

The dichotomy of the simplicity of the Gospel compared to the complexity of the Gospel is worth considering. Simple: Jesus loves you and died for your sins. Complex: The effects of sin impact people differently. Simple: God created the heavens and the earth. Complex: There is endless brokenness in the world. Simple: If I confess Jesus as Lord, I receive salvation. Complex: Not everyone has an opportunity to know God before they die.

Social media is a place for oversimplified messages, where snapshots and sound bites are the only things worth consuming. Tweets under 280 characters and TikTok videos under 60 seconds are easily watched, liked, and reposted or shared. If simplicity of the Gospel is the goal, do we risk downplaying the good news, which includes the complexity and nuance, by trying to share it on social media?

I do admire the various professionals who have found their way onto social media to inform the public about topics and issues that they might not always be interested in. Medical professionals create content that is easy for people to consume while still learning about health concerns and how to take better care of themselves. Teachers create content to help their students learn lesson objectives. This content is not just for those in the medical field or students in a particular class; anyone can watch and learn from such content.

While many professionals have successfully created content that is easily consumable, is this possible for those of us in ministry to do this? It seems as though such sound bites would only work for those who already have a relationship with God. Social media as a means of informing can only go so far. To take something as complex as our faith and manipulate it to fit the social media formula, we risk downplaying the good news.

Diana Kim is a pastor of a local Korean church in Torrance, CA. Her primary goals in serving are to teach and equip the next generation to be passionate for Jesus and to live out His passion and care for the world. Diana is currently a PhD student at Fuller Theological Seminary and is majoring in Christian Ethics. Her current research area of interest is Asian American feminist ethics.