Facebook. The world’s largest social network. Platform for kitten videos, identity quizzes, political rants, baby pictures, and … leading people to Jesus?
The ubiquitous social network Facebook has become ingrained into the social structure of our lives. Things that were once done face to face can increasingly be done in Facebook, including evangelism. We have already covered how you can use Facebook for evangelism with platforms like WatchThinkChat. Here is another example of the social network being used for the Great Commission.
“I thought it was weird because I’m not religious … Now I want to turn to Jesus.”
This summer, a Facebook group was created for the incoming freshman class at University of New Hampshire. Incoming freshmen then joined the UNH Class of 2018 Facebook group, introducing themselves, sharing their interests, and covering various questions they all had such as where to find good parking, who to share a dorm with, and which Freshmen English professor is the easiest.
Peter, a senior at UNH, decided to use that platform to invite the incoming freshmen into Christian fellowhip with him. Peter is a student leader with Cru, and in the one-minute video, he shared that being a part of Cru’s campus ministry is his favorite part of UNH. “It’s a caring community that’s passionate about connecting people genuinely to Jesus Christ,” he said. (View the video below)
With just a small action on Peter’s part, God did amazing things. Many of those incoming freshmen attended a Cru barbeque at the beginning of the semester. Some attended a weekend retreat. Some said they decided to attend because they saw Peter’s video. The video even affected those who did not yet know Christ.
“I thought it was weird because I’m not religious,” one student said about Peter’s video. But over time God worked on this freshman’s heart and eventually, he says, “I really wanted to try Cru. Now I want to turn to Jesus.”
We spend a lot of time strategizing about how to reach people, how to come up with a way of appealing to those who don’t yet know Jesus. How can we get such a person to join us? we wonder. Sometimes the answer is simple: Just ask them. You can ask a nonbeliever to join you in fellowship in person, through an evangelistic site like MyStory.me, and many other ways. Peter asked a group of incoming freshmen with a one-minute Facebook video, and that one minute is still reaping lasting rewards.
How can you use Facebook or other social media to reach those whom God has called you to reach?