College Community Church Mennonite Brethren

This Month's Story
Involvement in Ministry
Amy Stone

Facebook is the new public square. It’s a major meeting place for people of all kinds, and it offers significant opportunities for relational networking. Seeing this trend develop, and noting how many of our church community members already have Facebook pages, the Outreach Commission recently approved the establishment of a CCCMB “fan page.” Right now, we are still experimenting with it, trying out various applications.

Before establishing a CCCMB Facebook page, I spent some time thinking about how Facebook may or may not be compatible with Christian community, and how it might fit into the mission of CCCMB. I also discussed these questions at length with others in the community. Even as we agreed that the church could experiment with Facebook as a communication venue, we were aware that new technologies give rise to new ways of structuring our social worlds. How do we, the church, decide which technologies to embrace and which to avoid? What part do we play in the changes that are happening in our culture?

Some in the church fear that Internet-based socialization is ultimately dehumanizing and anti-social. These are valid concerns. Facebook certainly has the potential to turn our gazes away from the faces around us and toward the facsimilies of faces on our screens. If isolation is the result of this technology we should certainly reject it. Made in the image of God, we are most fully human when in genuine relationship with one another. Is it possible to nurture genuine and meaningful relationships online?

One author, who writes for the deaf and hard of hearing, reports that Facebook has an equalizing effect for individuals who have difficulty with hearing and verbal communication. On Facebook, deaf individuals can freely converse with hearing individuals without the awkwardness and embarrassment that they often feel in face-to-face situations. In another study, levels of loneliness and isolation in college freshman were correlated to Facebook use. The researchers found that raising the intensity of use of Facebook reduced students’ perceptions of loneliness, and had a positive relationship to offline friendships. Maybe Facebook use can nurture friendships. But are these authentic relationships?

Other researchers found that Facebook blurs the line between public and private lives of youth. “Students did not appear to conceive of there being two distinct realms: indeed, the ‘public’ appeared to be the individual's private social world.” The youth studied hesitated to include their mothers among their Facebook “friends” for fear of scandalizing them with their frankness. Evidently, young people tend not to distinguish between their online and offline persona, and are as genuine online as off. Personally, I have found that Facebook has a way of holding me accountable for what I say there. After all, almost everyone I know well, including my mother, can read what I’ve said there. Am I truly living up to who I want to be? Do all of my friends recognize me as the person I present online?

I can’t say for certain that maintaining a church Facebook page is good or bad for our community. Much more can be discussed on the issue. In the end, wherever we find ourselves we must regularly evaluate whether or not our ministry approaches are life-giving, for us and for others. If we find that Facebook friendships serve to deepen our face-to-face relationships, then perhaps this media-based meeting place can be a valuable ministry tool for the church.

Find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/cccmb. Stop by, “like” us, and get in on the experiment.