#548 – Social Media Consumer

Like anyone uses Bing.

I’ve been pretty bad at social media for the past few days. Short of tweeting links to my blog, I haven’t really done much sharing. I feel like I’ve just been a social media consumer.

I know plenty of people who are social media consumers. I have plenty of friends who are Twitter voyeurs, just following their favorite celebrities or news feeds. I like to be someone who brings something to my social networks, though, and not just links to my blog. I feel like a solicitor outside of Target when I’m only telling people to come to TheChristianNerd. I want to be better at social media. I want to bring more.

I want to post photos of Elphie and the hamburger I’m eating on Instagram.

I want to share a quote from my devotional book on Twitter.

I want to commend my students for encouraging tweets.

I want to share links to Snopes that debunk all the articles I see on Facebook.

I don’t just want to be a consumer; I want to fully engage.

I also want to have the same attitude when it comes to worship services. One of the most dangerous aspects of American Christianity is the consumer mindset. It’s too easy for people to sit in the congregation with the mindset of a consumer.

I want the lights to look like this.

I only want this worship leader to lead.

I don’t want to sing that song.

I want the sermon to be expositional/topical but, most importantly, short.

I want to get a maple bar after service.

When we enter a worship service with a consumer’s mindset it’s all about our wants and desires. We walk in with a mental checklist of things we want to happen. If enough of those are checked off then we declare the worship service is a success. If we don’t check off enough then we think we wasted our time.

Worship services aren’t about what we want, though. They’re not about us at all. A worship service is about God and bringing him glory. The consumer mindset distracts us from that goal and steals glory from our great and mighty God.

So just like we should be mindful of engaging with others on social media by offering something to our followers, friends and circles, we need to be mindful of really engaging with a worship service. We need to think about what we can bring to the worship experience that will glorify God and bless those around us.

If we care about what our Twitter followers think about us, how much more should we care what God thinks about us?

How do you fully engage with a worship service?