I haven’t gotten to read your further comments yet, but I do agree that we should focus on the Lord and trust His hand
in all things. Would you say that credible national Christian leaders should not alert us to political policies and pending
amendments that would infringe on our Constitutional rights and need our intervention to thwart? I’m talking about Focus on the Family, Family Life Today and such “talk show” formats particularly. Do these hold a tax exempt status? Regardless, they are not a worship service of local believers, and therefore have a broader focus.

Regarding TBN, I too wonder why they allow such a mixed bag of programs. In reading their “about us” mission statement, they include Catholics, Protestants and Messianic Jews as their audience, yet I agree with you that many of their hosts are heretic. I think the true truth proclaimers such as Jeremiah, Stanley, Graham, Rogers, Joni, etc.,… remain on there to be a light amongst the darkness…which has invaded even a place that should be bright. It just goes
to show that we need the Holy Spirit’s discernment and guidance through the minefields of this world daily. It also says to me that where there is money to be made, compromise abounds. :>

Thanks for your heartfelt and provoking thoughts. I’m so proud to call you son…and brother. Love, Boom

Facebook and other social networking sites seem to be the “hub” of today’s informal communication. Whereas we used to tell our friends things around the water cooler or over the phone, now we post them to our profiles–as you said, even blogs don’t get much traffic anymore compared with social networking sites. Many businesses have jumped on this bandwagon, using Facebook as a way to connect their customers to each other and draw them deeper into their market with coupons, contests, and special offers.

For churches, Facebook can be a blessing and a curse. Putting yourself out there definitely can open doors of ministry, by providing visitors and members an easy way to connect with church staff and other members and for you to communicate with members about upcoming events, etc. However, it can easily devolve into pettiness if you aren’t controlling the content of what people post.

I think you should move forward with the idea, but here are a few guidelines to remember:
1) Set the tone. Make the Facebook page feel like an extension of your church, with an emphasis on Christ, Scripture, discipleship & ministry. Get involved because this is a new way to further the cause of Christ, not because it’s “hip” to be on Facebook. Relevance should never be our goal as believers–becoming and making disciples of Jesus should always be our focus.

2) Control the content–gently. You can edit settings to control how much (or how little) you allow “fans” (the equivalent of “friends” for organizations) to post to the page. The best policy is to allow user feedback–that’s what makes Facebook different from a static website–just don’t let it get away from you. Check the page often, and if any comment threads or discussions are going in a poor direction, you have the ability as the page administrator to remove them. You want to facilitate healthy, spiritual interaction through the page, not serve as just another place for gossip or complaining.

3) Take what you do seriously, but don’t take yourself too seriously. You want to make sure that you use your page to impress upon those who visit it that the church (and the pastor) are sinners saved by God’s great grace. Don’t use the page as a platform for moralizing, but turn people’s attention to the Lord. It’s okay to “be real” on Facebook within the context of pointing readers to Christ.

4) Don’t let it stop there. If visitors never make it past your Facebook page to a real interaction with you or members of your church, it’s not doing its job. “Community” is a word that gets thrown around a lot in Church circles today, and Facebook can be a way to create a pseudo-community that makes us feel good without actually accomplishing ministry. Be intentional about pursuing further conact with the people you may meet through the page, invite them to church if they’re local, and certainly take every opportunity to magnify the name of Christ. Used wisely, Facebook and its ilk can provide a great opportunity to move beyond the four walls of the church, but it doesn’t happen automatically.

I can assure you it’s not my intention to be anonymous. I think the best explanation is simply that I overlooked that our new blog wasn’t putting my name on the posts.

In effort to correct that, here’s a little info:
1) My name is Justin Lonas. I live in Chattanooga, Tenn., with my wife (Rachel) and daughter (Canaan). I work at AMG International as the editor of Disciple Magazine.

2) I’m a believer in Christ and totally convinced that the Bible is God’s inerrant Word, written for us and our sole authority for life. As such, I’m not a part of any particular denomination, though this has less to do with any deep conviction against denominationalism (I know many solid believers and solid churches from a wide variety of denominations) and more to do with a desire not to be committed to any extra-biblical traditions (however innocuous). The local church my family & I are members of here is a non-denominational Bible church that focuses on expositional teaching, faithfully living out the Word, and proclamation of the Gospel around the world.

3) I am a lifelong Southerner (I was born in Georgia, and spent 8 years in the North Carolina mountains before moving to Chattanooga), and feel blessed to have been raised in a Christian home and in a region of the world where the culture has been strongly influenced by the Church. Much as I like coming home to the South, I love to travel, particularly in the Lord’s service. I’ve participated in short-term mission work around the U.S., Latin America, Haiti, and Greece. My wife and I both serve on our church’s missions committee, helping shepherd the whole congregation in our collective and individual fulfillment of the Great Commission.

4) I write on the blog (not as often as I should) for the same reasons we publish Disciple Magazine–to encourage Christians to think deeply about things that matter and to grow in greater relationship (and obedience) to God through faithful study of His Word. The things that make it onto the blog (but not the full magazine) are generally shorter thoughts (not necessarily incomplete ones) or musings rather than fully fleshed out articles. I also try to be a bit more personal here (again, something that putting my name on posts might help convey).

5) I’m sure I could put a few more details, but that’s all the pertinent stuff (my hobbies and favorite Beethoven pieces probably don’t matter too much to most people).

Thanks for asking.