READ MORE
2. Express Your Humanity
One of the issues in the church for years has been a sort of distance and subsequent disconnect between the pew and the pulpit. It is difficult, if not impossible, for a pastor to know and be known by the majority of the people in his church. This is especially true as the church grows. I’m not saying this is good or bad. It just is.
Along the way, there can be a dehumanization of the leader. If a person only sees the pastor for an hour on Sunday, it can subconsciously give the impression that he is only a point of information.
Obviously I spend a lot of time on social media. But I have a very specific reason for that. The primary way I influence people is not by speaking at a conference — It is through social media. Regardless of the size audience I may have at a national conference, the ongoing Twitter connection is much broader.
While I spark conversations about statistics, church, culture, strategy, etc. on Twitter, most of my social media followers know I have daughters, because I talk about them. If I take them and their friends to a Taylor Swift concert, I tweet about it, in all its pain!
When one of my daughters was quite sick, I tweeted about it. I express my adoration for my wife online. Social media helps me go from just being a speaker/author to being a man who loves his family as he goes through a regular life.
It is important for the people you are leading to see you as more than a leader on a stage. Social media can help shorten the distance between the pulpit and the pew.