Introduction:
Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 2 Timothy 4:2-4. These words by Apostle Paul to Timothy are very true to us today, the world has experienced different seasons and we believers of Christ must be ready to preach the Gospel of truth in season and out of season.
When pandemic hit, the entire world stood still, we became limited to our access to travel, to
gather, to be with our family and with the church. The general population turned to social media for information, sadly, from an ordinary student to a senior citizen who doesn’t seem to care the origin of the information: we just dig in, like and share. The information spread like wildfire and if the material is fake the truth will surely be drowned. The question is, as Pastor Rei Lemuel Crizaldo raised in his article, “Can truth still win in a world where fake news is manufactured and disseminated faster than anyone can fact check it?
The Ugly Side of Social Media
Social Media has become the world’s powerful tool of communication, for some this has become their outlet for self-expression using photos, videos and rants...answering the question, “What’s on your mind?”, and replying to comments posted by others. The rest try to create a virtual world that is somewhat far from reality. Parts of these are the information circulating with no one to filter. As Pastor Rei noted it, “In the past years or so, social media morphed into a toxic wasteland flooded with fake news, causing its inhabitants to suffer both online fatigue and trauma, and seeing friendships built over a long period of time ripped apart in an instant.”
Sadly, the Church which is supposed to be the “salt and light’ of the world “joined in the bandwagon”, we have lost our credibility by fighting over the colors of presidentiables we prefer while losing the relationship, and on top of that, spreading fake news about this pandemic as another form of conspiracy theory. What can an ordinary student, ordinary citizen, and an elder do to sieve the information they are seeing and reading in social media? Sadly they are the ones who belong to “like and share” majority of social media users.
The Role of the Church: The Rise of Digital Ministry
As people turned in to internet community for information, the Church must step in to redeem what God has purified: Social Media Platforms as the means of Digital Ministry. It is high time for the Church to bring this truth to where the people are, just like what Dr. John Paul Arceno stated in his dissertation, “Virtual Preaching: A Digital Theology”, and right now, people are flooding in social media, we must bring the Gospel of Truth to people who according to statistics, 61 percent of their waking times spend most on internet. The Church must be relevant to the times and seasons to where God is leading her, relevant yet biblically sound. The Church therefore, must purify herself and be true to delivering truth: uncompromised truth, yet seasoned with grace.
Virtual Preaching and Teaching
Paul said in 2nd Timothy 2:9, that though he may be bound, the Word of God is not chained, Paul before he experienced imprisonment was passionate in preaching the Gospel in truth, power and grace; when he was imprisoned, he transitioned to writing and as what one wise pastor said, “If Paul were alive today, he must be busy doing webinars and online discipleship and live streaming. Pandemic may have hit the Church badly, it may have closed the doors of the building of churches, but this pandemic doesn’t possess the power to shut down and chain the Gospel of Truth, Jesus said to Peter, “upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” [Matthew 16:18] therefore, if the gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church of God built in the name of Jesus, what can a mere pandemic do?
The Church Being True...and Gracious
As the Church steps in to the virtual world, she must be responsible to hold and live for the truth, it is our highest aim to proclaim the truth, provide the truth if it means going against our political stand, our world values and systems compared to what the Word of God holds... however, the problem is... how do we communicate the truth?
Most of us drop the truth like a bomb, this sad practice negate the character of Jesus on how the truth is communicate, especially in social networks where feelings are delivered with judgment and received in angry emoticons or emojis. I love how Pastor Rei used Jesus as an example on how He dealt with the woman caught in adultery; He spoke the truth with grace and made her realize the error she was living. While most of us, wanted to JUST DELIVER THE TRUTH, we have forgotten that the Truth is Christ’s attribute and so does grace. He is altogether truth and grace, His goal is always the same, to save the lost and call sinners to repentance.
If we deliver the truth to the person without grace, it is like driving a pointed stick to his heart causing it to rip apart, especially now that most of our church activities are done online, we will never be able to win them if grace is missing. Pastor Rei said this in his last paragraph, “Truth that eradicates is no different from the bombs that got dropped in Palestinian homes. One can argue with a formidable case that retaliations is justified but it is undeniable that it won’t be a step towards the peace of Christ. Only towards the peace of Rome: Pax Romana (be at peace, otherwise, you shall rest in peace). I guess, what is true of Gaza is also true of social media.”
Conclusion:
God has prepared the world before pandemic sets is, He has put His people to utilize social
media for His glory, we are in a Digital World and we need to use technology for Digital Ministry and how we do it... let’s practice truth and grace, by this the world will know we are His!
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