Keyboard Sins

From Radio Free Babylon
(Click on image to enlarge)

Golden Rule

HT: Ed Stezer

Get On-Line...But Don't Be A Jerk About It

10 Tips for Christian Leaders Who Don’t Want To Become Self Promoting Jerks Online - By Mark Sayers

Social Networking can be a fabulous tool for leaders to advance the kingdom. However like so many other things it can also lead us into dangerous territory if unexamined.

Below are some tips on how to use social networking well in our celebrity obsessed, image based culture without falling into the sin of pride. I have probably broken several at times, but hopefully they will be of help to you.

1) Avoid being a fame-vampire. Just because you had coffee with someone well known doesn’t mean that you have to tweet about it. We tend to do this because sub-consciously believe that if we broadcast the fact that we are associating with someone well known, that their fame/influence will rub off on us.

Would you be willing to tweet that you just met with a person who had no influence or social capital?

2) Don’t add to the Hubbub. We live in a culture of incredible distraction. Just because we can broadcast to thousands the first thought that comes into our head doesn’t mean that we have to. Just communicate the important stuff.

By refraining from the cacophony you just might give others space and silence. Is your broadcasting of the mundane robbing others of the silence they need to encounter God?

3) Real life Followers>Online followers.

4) Platform never beats spiritual authority. Lot of people talk about platform these days. Platform sells books, generates hits and followers and results in speaking requests. However platform doesn’t always equate with spiritual authority.

You can have a massive platform with little spiritual authority, and you can have significant spiritual authority and a terrible Klout score.

5) Promote resources not yourself. Beware the thin line between selling books, resources, events, Churches, others you wish to champion, ministries you believe in and selling yourself.
Do your social networking patterns push people towards resources that will build up their faiths, or are you allowing some of the glory to bounce off onto you?

6) Avoid humblebrags. Don’t ever use the hashtag #humbled. My friend Amy said to me the other day that if someone uses the hashtag #humbled there is a 90% chance they are bragging.
We know deep down that social networking naturally tilts towards self promotion, so we try and self promote whilst trying to be humble, check out the humblebrag feed on twitter to see why this approach doesn’t work.

7)Ask the dangerous question ‘why?’ Before posting always ask yourself ‘why am I posting this instagram pic/tweet/status update?’ Deeply search your heart for your true motivations. If you struggle with this find a social networking accountability buddy who will ask you the tough questions.

8) Take breaks. Take regular technology sabbaths. This is one of the best ways to ensure that you keep social networking as a tool rather than an idol.

9) Be Patient with God. God will advance your ministry if he so desires in His good time. Just because we live in a time where it is easy to push our own carts does not mean that we need to. Both the bible and history is littered with the tragic tales of people whose influence exceeded their spiritual development.

10) Track your time. Keep a track of how much time you are devoting to social networking. Not just in real minutes and hours but also in mental energy. Do you find yourself thinking about what you could say online when you are even off line? Are you robbing your family, friends and neighbours of your complete presence and attention? Sit down and plan how much time you wish to spend a week online and stick to it.

Avoiding On-line Self-Promotion

Some good counsel from Mark Sayers, author of the new book, Facing Leviathan: Leadership, Influence, and Creating in a Cultural Storm, (By way of Justin Taylor)

1. Avoid being a fame-vampire.
2. Don’t add to the Hubbub.
3. Real life Followers>Online followers.
4. Platform never beats spiritual authority.
5. Promote resources not yourself.
6. Avoid humblebrags.
7. Ask the dangerous question ‘why?’
8. Take breaks.
9. Be patient with God.
10. Track your time.

You can read an explanation of each point here.

10 Commandments for Social Media

Kevin DeYoung posted these "Ten Commandments for Twitter."  I'd say they apply to blogs and Facebook also. Enjoy!

And the Lord of Twitter spoke all these words saying, I am the Lord your God, who gave thee computers and tablets and smartphones, the Holy One of all social media who foreknew the internet before the foundation of the earth, yea even before Al Gore was born:

Thou shalt worship others gods before Twitter. Take heed lest ye waste your life 140 characters at a time. What shall it profit a man if he has 100,000 followers and forgets what it means to follow me?

Thou shalt not assume the worst about the tweets of others. Careful qualifications and robust explanations are not to be expected in two sentences. Cuttest thine enemies some slack.Kevin DeYoung posted these 10 Commandments for Twitter. I'd say they apply to blogs and Faceboo

Thou shalt not take the name of thine own person too seriously. If thou art prone to feeling offended at every turn and to feeling sorry for thyself publically before others, I beseech thee to gettest thou over it. To tweet like an eight-year-old is an abomination before me.

Remember thine hyperlinks, to keep them holy. Three things are a nuisance to others, four things are always to be avoided: broken links, trashy videos, rickrolling, and linking to thine own article 17 times in the same day.

Honor thy father and thy mother and all others to whom honor is due. Let thy tweets be full of encouragement and praise. Find what is commendable and commend it before others. Forgettest not that athletes and politicians are real people too. And rememberest thou that thy parents and pastors can read thy tweets.

Thou shalt not humblebrag. Better to be humble and say nothing or to brag and say everything, than to fool no one but thine own conscience.

Thou shalt not disguise self-congratulation in the form of lamentation. If thou shouldst mention before a multitude, and with conspicuous disappointment, that thou wast the only one white person who entered a float for Nelson Mandela Appreciation Day or that it breakest thine heart to think about the church’s responsibility for the Crusades, small shall be thy reward in heaven.

Thou shalt not make public demands of complete strangers. Calling upon others to respond to thy blog or denounce the evil thou refusest to put to rest is like unto social media terrorism. It is a constant dripping on a day of steady rain.

Thou shalt not retweet thine own awesomeness. The decree to “Let another praise you, and not thine own mouth” shall not be loosed all thy days. It is a perpetual statute, even unto the age of Twitter. Let it be a light unto thy path, to guard thy head from swelling and thy friends from cringing.

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s klout; thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s retweets, or his followers, or his hip Instagram photos, or his travel complaints, or his mentions, or anything belonging to thy neighbor.

Dos and Don'ts for Web-Savy Ministries

At the website of America Magazine, "the National Catholic Weekly," there is a good list of 10 Dos and Don'ts for Web-Savy Organizations. Good advice here for any church, ministry or any Christian organization.

Hat Tip: The Anchoress

BTW: Did you know that the Pope now has a twitter account? See http://t.co/fVHpS9y
    
 

10 Easy Steps to Ruin Your Internet Reputation

10 Easy Steps to Ruin Your Online Reputation

If you want to know how to ruin your online reputation, or just want to be a jerk, follow the 10 easy steps at the link above.

Not Many of You Should Presume to Be Teachers - Or Bloggers?

A profound warning to me and my fellow bloggers from CT Magazine - Not Many of You Should Presume to Be Bloggers:

Throughout the history of public theological debate, there was one constant—those debates only took place between a few select people—Moses, Plato, Augustine, Aquinas, and so on—who gained respect through a lifetime of scholarship.

But the invention of social media, like blogs, Twitter, and Facebook, created a radical departure in communication. In pre-2004 Christianity (that is, Christianity before Facebook was invented), only a small group of Christian leaders and teachers had access to the printing press—but today everyone has WordPress. In pre-2004 Christianity it was difficult to become a published author, but today everyone is surrounded by dozens of "Publish" buttons.

Every time we log into Facebook it asks us, "What's on your mind?" Twitter wants to know, "What's happening?" When controversies large and small erupt, there are devices in every direction begging us to not just take a side, but to declare our position on the largest publishing platform ever constructed by humanity.

What few of us realize is that when we press those "Publish," "Post," "Comment," and "Send" buttons, we are making the shift away from merely "believing" truth and stepping into the arena of publishing that belief. In doing so we are effectively assuming a position of leadership and teaching that prior to 2004 was not available to us.

 James warned us, "Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly" (James 3:1, NIV1984). James goes on to graphically portray the incredible power that our tongues have both to praise and to curse especially in the context of teaching. He then says, "Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life." (James 3:13). Solomon echoes similar wisdom, "Even a fool is thought wise if he keeps silent" (Prov. 17:28).

I would ask everyone to click on  the tab at the top of this blog and read the page entitled "You Have A Right to Know." I am scared by the responsibility of publishing on the subjects of Theology, the Gospel, and Biblical truth, and beg for your prayers. I am not going to stop, but I know I desperately need Jesus!
 

Facebook Scriptures

A selection of Scripture verses on the subject of words and speech, paraphrased for the internet age.

For out of the abundance of the heart, a person Facebooks.  (Luke 6:45)

Gracious blog posts are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body. (Proverbs 16:24)

A word fitly posted on Facebook is like apples of gold in a setting of silver. (Proverbs 25:11)

The posts of a wise man's blog win him favor, but the blogings of a fool consume him. (Ecclesiastes 10:12)

Let your internet postings always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. (Colossians 4:6)

Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound internet posts that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us. (Titus 2:7-8)

For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he posts on the internet, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. (James 3:2)