Social Media: Influence or Polarization?

A. When I look at the team at 12Stone Church®, the leadership giftedness of Kevin Myers is obvious, but there's an amazing team there with him that is off the charts. It's been a pleasure to get to know Dan Reiland, Chris Huff, Robin Ritchie and others there these last few years.

Dan Reiland in particular is the "executive pastor" to end all executive pastors. He wrote a piece the other day called, "Influence or Interference," that really got me thinking. Many know that I have a quasi-addiction to social media. Part of it is the fact that I like to make people laugh. Part is the same reason I enjoy teaching--I love to share ideas, especially if I think they are neat or if I think they are important.

B. In a polarized America and a polarized church, social media hasn't been much fun lately, especially when you are aiming for some sort of middle. Social media is fine if the only people you're engaging agree with you. But in the melting pot of Facebook, east meets west. People you keep separate in real life intermingle.

I've repeatedly experienced an initial comment on Facebook that sparks an extended battle between east and west on whatever topic. I may be long gone from the discussion, but the battle goes on and on. I wish there were a Facebook function where you could end discussion, just freeze it where it is. Contrary to popular belief, I don't actually enjoy starting fights.

But when you have 2000 people in the same room, the expression of any position is almost bound to start a fight. A few times lately, the polarization has been particularly painful.

C. Something about Dan Reiland's recent post sparked something in me. This sentence especially caught my eye: "As a leader, I always have an opinion, but I shouldn't always share it." He has a list of questions he asks himself before he interferes with his team.

His questions made me think, "What would a good list be for me on social media?" When I have a thought, when should I post it and when shouldn't I?

Here's some for starters:

1. Am I going to hurt or offend someone with this comment?
Hurting is different from offending. Is there anyone I'm going to tear down when I should be building them up? Jokes can hurt, so funny should especially be screened for hurtfulness.

There may be a time to offend, but I should carefully think it through and be prepared for the consequences. Maybe this is also the place to put, "Am I going to tick off one of my superiors?"

2. Will my bold statement actually change anything, or will it just make me feel good for a second?
Probably the biggest problem with social media is when we use it to vent. We feel good for a second, but the fight keeps going and the alienation deepens. Am I improving the church or just making myself feel good for telling someone off?

3. What will others do with my words?
It's not just a matter of what I mean. Who am I feeding? Who is going to take my words and push them over the edge, take them to the next level? Am I going to start a war? How am I going to feel when my friends start tearing each other apart?

4. Do my words pull together or push apart?
I'm on some big teams. There's my School of Theology team. There's the IWU team. There's the Wesleyan Church team. There's the kingdom team. I don't want to polarize these teams. I want to pull them further together.

5. Am I increasing or diminishing my influence?
Every public statement or decision I make either increases, decreases, or has no impact on my influence. There is a time to take a hit for the greater good, but you want your net influence to be growing rather than diminishing. Will my comment put money in the bank or make a withdrawal?

6. What is my gut saying?
When I get an uneasy feeling about emailing something or posting something, it's usually my subconscious warning me that I'm giving into a carnal or selfish impulse or that I'm running the risk of ticking someone off. If I get this, I should think/pray about it some more, maybe get a coffee, maybe ask someone, maybe sleep on it. My bias should probably be against posting.

There is a time to unfriend someone who always poisons your well. I've never done it yet. You can also make it so that some people don't see certain posts. These moves go against my natural impulses, but these are times of great polarization indeed. Remember the proverb that says, "Do not answer fools according to their folly, or you will be a fool yourself" (26:4).

So those are some questions I've decided to start asking myself before I tweet, blog, or post on Facebook. What would you add to the list?

God, You, and the Bible

I'm once again enjoying 12StoneChurch® this weekend, teaching New Testament for their biblical studies program in cooperation with IWU. It's a cocktail of delight, not only with the familiar faces of students now in their fourth course, but with comrades like Robin Ritchie, Chris Huff, Dave Ward, Steve Lennox, and Chris Bounds.

As a Bible person, I've thought a lot about what I'm doing when I teach Bible and frequently ask myself what I'm supposed to do. On the one thing, I think I know some stuff. I have this degree that says I do. But many voices wonder if the stuff I know is helpful or useful.

I believe truth is a legitimate pursuit for its own sake. But from the standpoint of priority--what should a teacher teach in a certain context--some truths are more important or more useful than others in certain situations. Indeed, some truths can be counter-productive.

Believe it or not, this is also true about the Bible. In particular, the path to historical understanding is tricky. It starts with, "I want to know more about the Bible." It becomes, "I want to know what it really meant." But the person who starts this path usually doesn't know where this path leads. Some end up as history-deniers (fundamentalists). Others end up denying the importance of history (post-liberals). Others end up with a certain antiquarianism that locks up the Bible in the past.

This has long been my struggle. In conversation with Dave Ward yesterday and in recent reflection, I think I finally have a formula for my approach to teaching Bible in a Christian context:

1. There are two functions of Scripture - formation and information. Formation is by far the more important, even though both are valid.

2. God meets, forms, and informs us where we are. The goal is not to lead someone to some place where they can meet God. God always meets us here and now, wherever we are.

3. I have some thoughts about the Bible. I'm a Biblehead. Some of those thoughts are probably right. Some of them are probably wrong. God meets me where I'm at in my understanding, right or wrong.

4. As a Bible teacher, I teach some of the stuff I think I know, about what the Bible really meant, as well as some of the things other people have thought about the Bible. The goal, though, is not to take students to a place where they can meet God--God meets us everywhere on the journey.

5. God met the people of the Bible in history, and I can gain from learning about that. God meets us now, with whatever understanding we have, right or wrong, and forms us to be more like him.

What I think of Socrates...

I'm delighted to be at 12Stone Church this weekend. They just have a spectacularly blessed ministry down here. You can even watch an online 12Stone service 24 hours a day.

Dr. Steven Lennox and I drove down here today and had a great time with the OT and NT with the 12Stone Biblical Studies program. Last weekend, Bud Bence, Chris Bounds, and Dave Ward were down here doing church history, theology, and the book of Ephesians.

Last night was also my weekly philosophy class at IWU, and since there wasn't a lot of discussion on the R v. W post, I thought I would move the blog along. :-)
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Socrates is often portrayed by teachers as this great hero of thought, the "first martyr" of philosophy. I imagine anyone who would take a guess would imagine I would follow suit. "O great Socrates! O foolish Athens!"  Look at the way he was portrayed in Barefoot in Athens.

I actually picture Socrates as a jerk and an idiot, a true trouble maker. Here's a guy who spends most of his time going around annoying important people. One of his drinking buddies goes to the temple at Delphi and asks if he's the wisest person in the world. The oracle says yes.

So Socrates uses it as an excuse to make the most important people in Athens look like idiots. Yeah, that's smart.  In Plato's dialogues, Socrates' arguments seem rife to me with the fallacy of equivocation. He takes the words of the person he's interrogating and then changes the meaning of the words in his responses. You can't do this sort of thing for long and not find yourself on the wrong end of power.

Then there is Socrates' idea that if you get your thinking right, your life will follow suit. It sure would be nice if these two were in sync, but he has it the wrong way around. Humans more often come up with thinking that will fit with their sense of living. We come up with ideologies that fit our hearts. There are plenty of people who believe the right things but choose not to live accordingly.

Finally, of course, Socrates was an idiot when it came to his trial and death. When convicted, a person could propose a counter-penalty to what his or her opponents proposed. But Socrates, after he was convicted of corrupting the youth and not believing in the gods, didn't counter-propose a fine or something reasonable. The Athenians might have gone for that. Instead, he proposed that they pay him to keep doing what he was just convicted of. Of course they're not going to vote for that.

Even while awaiting his death, there were offers of escape. The King of Sparta would have put him up and treated him royally. Instead, he drank the poison himself on principle. He had been found guilty.

So, basically, there is little of Socrates I like. Yes, the Socratic method makes for good teaching. But Socrates himself was annoying. Yes, there is great wisdom in realizing how much you do not know, but I suspect Socrates too much enjoyed showing important people this fact.

Admire him? Only a little. Mostly, I suspect he was a jerk.

NT Survey at 12Stone

Many thanks to Robin Ritchie, Chris Huff, Dan Reiland, and all the wonderful people at 12Stone who set up and are participating in the new certificate program.  Chris Bounds blew the minds of his theology group, and I give all my admiration for the group who endured 10 hours of drinking from the fire hose of the New Testament with me.  Now we all go online for 8 more weeks to finish up.

12Stone is such an incredible church (Lawrenceville, Georgia)!  Just driving onto the main church campus and walking into its building brings peace.

If you live in the northeast Atlanta area, definitely worth worshiping at one of the campuses and one of the services!