Individual souls mattered to Christ, and thus must matter to us. Sure, we can reach the masses. But may it never be at the expense of our private and personal ministries where we truly do admonish and teach each person with all wisdom and with sincere tears, in order to present each person complete in Christ.

On the eve of a new season of pastoral ministry a little over a year ago, I deemed it good to shake the dust off of a church administration book that I was assigned to read during my seminary days. The book is second to none on the topic, in both its comprehensiveness and detail. There is even an entire section devoted to providing templates of all the job descriptions for all the different church staff personnel—from the lead pastor to the church secretary to the worship director to the facilities manager. All…except one.

There was no template for the position of church social media director.

From Facilitation to Globalization

The book, after all, was written before the eruption of social media platforms that so many churches employ today, often for marketing purposes. Yes, marketing purposes. While some churches may use social media exclusively for facilitation and communication amongst members, most now use social media platforms in an effort to gain audiences beyond the boundaries of the local body. Because of the global accessibility of internet resources, churches have realized that the theological material that their ministers produce can reach people in just about any region of the world. Today, there are full-time church staff whose job description is solely devoted to making the church’s—or the individual minister’s—ministry of the Word accessible to people outside of his local congregation. And this is not a bad thing.

In fact, it is a good thing. God does not mandate for biblical exhortation and instruction given to a particular local assembly to remain within the confines of their assembly. In the same way, church congregants were never meant to receive their biblical instruction exclusively from their local ministers. Those churches that insist or imply otherwise are flirting with cult-like behavior, if they haven’t crossed over the line yet. The local church was never meant to be an insular community. Personally, as a Christian and a minister of the gospel, I have benefitted tremendously from the biblical instruction of other ministers outside of my congregation. And the fact that I’m writing this article for an online publications ministry hopefully demonstrates that I’m in no way opposed to reaching a wider audience. In fact, for many of us, it is the church congregants themselves who desire to spread the instruction we gave them to more people. That was the same case with the Samaritan woman when she was transformed (John 4:39-42), and it is true for many of the church’s saints today. And when it happens, it’s wonderful.

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