Why should a pastor post anything on social media? I suppose if he has something to say.
Social media has provided the world with the opportunity to have possession of a megaphone. With the ability to say what you want, and the potential to be heard by an unknown audience, many people post.
As a pastor, I make it an intentional habit to post specific things at certain times of the week. Why? For the same reason why I would step up to an empty pulpit if one was available. I want to be ready to preach the word no matter what the situation is (2 Tim. 4:2:). If there is an opportunity, I want to take it. I believe that I know the best news in the world, and so if there is someone listening, I want to be sharing.
I take the same approach to social media. I look at it as a pulpit positioned for me to share something important.
And here’s the secret: if you’re growing, you’ve got something worthwhile to share. If you’re learning, you can be teaching. If you’re eager, you’ve got something to give to those who are willing to listen.
If you are stagnating personally, you have to search for something to say. If you are spiritually maturing, you don’t run out of material.
I heard this idea once in an Ask Pastor John Podcast:
To sum it up, I came away from those several days of listening with this passion that has never died. It is as close as I’ve ever had to a call. And it was, “You’re not going to be a medical doctor; you’re going to be a Bible guy. And your job for the rest of your life is going to be to look at it, see what’s there, try to savor it according to its value, and then say it for other people to enjoy.” And I have not been able to shake it for fifty years now. What I do and what we do is look at the Bible, try to understand what it says, love what it says, and then tell people what it says. That’s what we do.
Fast-forward to 1980. Now, during my first year in the pastorate, I get to preach twice on Sunday. Back in those days, we had evening services, and I preached twice on Sunday. And everything in me said, “That’s not enough. I have so much more to say. This is my flock. My job is to tell them what I see in the Bible. I’m seeing things in the Bible every day, and I can’t not want to tell people. That’s just what it means, I think, to be called in this way.
Because Piper was learning so much, he didn’t mind preaching and teaching multiple times during the week. He also desired to write things out in a way to impact whoever was reading. He had too much to keep to himself!
It reminds me of the prophet Jeremiah’s confession:
9 If I say, “I will not mention him,
Jeremiah 20:9
or speak any more in his name,”
there is in my heart as it were a burning fire
shut up in my bones,
and I am weary with holding it in,
and I cannot.
The Apostle Paul confessed the same thing. He believed things, and then he spoke them. And he spoke and wrote certain things for the church’s sake. He wanted to share what he was learning for their own benefit. Look at the progression below.
13 Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, 14 knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence.15 For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.
2 Corinthians 4:13-15
So, should pastors post? If they’ve got something to say, then yes! Keep growing. Keep sharing. If you’re on social media, don’t bypass any open pulpit to point others to Jesus.
Travis Agnew serves as the Lead Pastor of Rocky Creek Church in Greenville, SC. His most recent book is Just (About) Married.
