LIBERTY UNIVERSITY JOHN W. RAWLINGS SCHOOL OF DIVINITY
Can We Use Social Media for Evangelism?
A Paper Submitted to
the Faculty of the School of Divinity
in Candidacy for the Degree of
Doctor of Education in Christian Leadership (Ed. D) Department of Christian Leadership and
Church Ministries
By
Mary Gracias
Lynchburg, Virginia
5/2022
Can We Use Social Media for Evangelism?
The church is struggling to adjust to its new environment in the technological advances of
the twenty-first century – we are no longer even in a postmodern age but something
indescribably beyond even that. Most consider us to be living, in the West, in post-
Christendom. This does not mean we are secular in the UK necessarily; we are simply
"haunted", as Rowan Williams memorably put it, by the memory of Christianity. Along with all
other large institutions the church seems to be losing its hold and authority. Into this we can
insert the charge to all Christians, and particularly to the ordained in the Church of England, to
"proclaim the gospel afresh in each generation".
I am what might be described as an 'early adopter'; I embraced with enthusiasm social
media in all its forms when it emerged in the middle of the last decade. I have also always had a
passion for evangelism and for finding new ways to share the faith that I hold so dear. This
study seeks to understand something of the world in which we now live, where connection to
the internet is seen by some to be a human right, and where it is an integral part of a lot of
people's lives and how this connects to our calling as Christians to become involved in the
missio Dei, the mission of God, in the world.
This is an important task. Because of the fast pace of change, we must be careful not to
sleepwalk into a new paradigm without taking the time to reflect theologically.
Bryony goes on to explore the range of responses to the rise of the internet, from those
who treat it with suspicion to those who embrace it as the answer to the challenge of
evangelism. But she also helpfully explores how our understanding of mission and evangelism
has been changing over the last one hundred years, which has an equally important bearing on
what we think we are doing online:
The great mission movements of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were
birthed in the modern age and used techniques predicated on a modernist worldview. Many of
these techniques have been imported into present times but now feel, particularly to younger
people, like square pegs in round holes. We are moving from propositional evangelism, where a
series of proofs are provided as to the truth claims of Christianity, to a more demonstrative
evangelism where the gospel is revealed through the lives of Christians.
Thomas Hawkins describes our age as "prefigurative", that is, that people are more willing
than previously to live with unanswered questions. I believe that this is becoming true for both
the evangelist and those with whom the gospel is shared. Gallagher calls evangelization a
process of "double conversion" where the evangelist is changed by the encounter as well as the
evangelized, something that will be interesting to explore as we look at the data later in this
study…
Stephen Cottrell comments that for many years the controlling biblical paradigm for
evangelism was the story of Paul's encounter on the road to Damascus. This gave rise to
evangelism programmes (still very much used around the world) that see the sole goal as
somebody praying the prayer of salvation, ie. asking Jesus into their lives. Cottrell goes on to
show that the more common experience of people coming to faith is that it emulates not the
dramatic Damascus road experience but rather the gentle warming of the heart story of the
road to Emmaus.
We can see this very much demonstrated in the publication of a new evangelism resource,
with the clue in the name, Pilgrim. Up against the popular older course Alpha (in its original
format) it has a very different feel, focusing not on the beginnings of faith but on the whole
Christian journey. Fascinatingly, when I was researching in 2013, the Alpha course had a clear
strapline which I felt was very modernist: it purported to provide the "answers to life's biggest
questions". Looking at the Alpha course website now this strapline is nowhere to be found. The
new strapline currently on the website is "Begin the greatest adventure". This shows very
starkly the point I am making; people are no longer looking for 'answers' or 'the truth' but for
something that makes life worth living. The Alpha and Pilgrim courses are responding to that.
But beyond the 'Damascus' and the 'Emmaus' paradigms, Bryony notices a change in online
use which is built more around relationships and friendship, leading to an 'Athens' kind of
personal engagement:
We have seen in recent years an emphasis on friendship and on networks (or community)
in approaches to evangelism. In one of the earliest books on the internet and evangelism,
Careaga states, "Electronic evangelism is friendship evangelism via the internet." This was
written way before the likes of Facebook, which take the concept even further. We are now
networked with thousands of people like never before. I have friends that I only know through
online interactions who are affected by what I share online. According to internet tool 'Tweet
Reach', I can reach 34,877 people with one tweet (given that I have 3,086 followers). Compare
this with the numbers I might reach through an average Sunday service in a church! This kind of
reach in networking was unimaginable even just ten years ago.
Bryony then offers the results of her own research, exploring how people talked about faith
within the three paradigms of 'Damascus' (looking for conversion), 'Emmaus' (looking for a
journey of realisation) and 'Athens' (looking for engagement in friendship). From this she then
notes some key advantages that the online environment offers which we do not find elsewhere:
1. Privacy. It is significant that nearly half of the approaches made were via private one-to-
one messaging. This reveals that people find it easy and more comfortable to ask questions
about faith in a private space online. This is possibly the online equivalent of Nicodemus visiting
Jesus "by night" (John 3:2). People on social media are directly contactable in a way that has
not previously been so easy; paradoxically there is a distance offered by the online environment
akin to the screen in a confessional box. As a result, in a social media private message,
proximity and distance are offered at the same time.
2. Trust. Many of the respondents referred to the fact that trust had already built up
through a prior relationship before the approach was made. Few responses were out of the
blue; most described a connection with someone they knew already. Asking a question about
faith requires a level of trust in the relationship. The questioner needs to feel as if their
question will be respected and answered graciously. Many survey respondents (especially in
the Emmaus and Athens groups) were keen to share their faith in the mix of other things
online, and this built up trust amongst their friends.
3. Availability. Connected to the themes of privacy and trust is availability. Many
responded that they received the approach because everyone knew they were a Christian and
they were easily accessible online. This reveals the importance of making it clear one is a
Christian online; we must not hide our light under a bushel! (Matthew 5:15). The online
environment has made us more available and accessible than ever. People are now very likely
to search not only Google for answers but search for a person that can answer their question. If
they can find someone they know and trust then all the better! This raises the question of how
available Christians should be to their friends on social media. What do we do about people
who are not on social media? How easy is it for them to ask for help?
