Ed Stetzer is best known as a church researcher. He's a missiologist, church-planter, and president of LifeWay Research. But in recent years, he's added a new line to his bio: social media maestro. With a well-trafficked blog and large followings on Facebook and Twitter, Stetzer has expanded his ministry through these new platforms. Drew Dyck and Kyle Rohane of Leadership Journal sat down with Stetzer (physically, not virtually) to talk about his experiences with social media, the implications they have for ministry, and why he jokes that pastors who aren't on Twitter need to repent.
How did you get started with social media?
I wasn't a pioneer, that's for sure. I don't like to jump on a fad. Facebook I knew, but once I saw Twitter getting some traction, I asked a couple of friends what it was all about. They said, "Let us set you up!" And so—I sound like my grandfather here—they started an account for me. I did it really poorly for about two weeks. I was tweeting stuff nobody cared about. And I was tweeting seven times in 10 minutes. People were like, "Stop!"
So since I'm a researcher, I decided to study up on it. I read about best practices. For instance I learned that the most followed accounts tweet approximately 12 times a day. I also listened when people said, "This is why I'm not following you."
Are you surprised at how large a role social media has come to play in your ministry?
Absolutely. It's easy and efficient. When I speak somewhere, I have to fly there (usually a day early), speak, fly home, and it takes a day to get back. But I can write a blog post in 30 minutes and have five thousand people read it that day. So it's definitely changed the way I see my ministry.
I am shocked by the conversations I have with people. Anywhere I go now, people will ask me about something they read from me online. I was in Brazil and I had people talk to me about what they read on my blog. I started blogging I think in 2007, and I'm surprised how it has become such a primary means of communication.
What about the pastors who feel too busy for Facebook, Twitter, or blogging?
I understand if they feel too busy for blogging. Blogging is a higher level of commitment. I blog every day, but that's part of my job; I'm not a full-time pastor. So not every pastor can be deeply involved with social media. But a church can. I think if you want to have an ongoing conversation with your church, having a church blog for your staff is an excellent idea.
But to pastors who aren't on Twitter and Facebook right now, I would say this: you should repent. You should get on Twitter and Facebook right away. If you don't, you're missing a great opportunity.
These micro blogging platforms give you the ability to have short conversations to communicate helpful things to your people and beyond. It's not a huge time commitment. Twitter only gives you 140 characters per tweet. So let's say you do it five times a day. That's only 700 characters a day. How many emails do you write that are much longer and you're only communicating to one person? Why not take the moment and communicate to your whole congregation through one of these platforms?
LifeWay published a study that found most pastors use social media primarily for "outbound messaging." In other words, they are using these media as a virtual bulletin board, rather than for two-way conversation. Is that a problem? What is the purpose of social media for those in ministry?
A lot of pastors are used to delivering monologues. It's what we do on a Sunday. But we can't think of social media as a sermon. It's a conversation. It's no mistake that the first word in social media is social.
So if you want to get on there just to tell people about what you're doing and never respond, that's not helpful. People can see through that. They'll get frustrated. And so will you. You'll wonder why no one engages with you—and it's because you're un-engaging.
Social media is about engagement. So if you're afraid of a conversation, social media is not for you. But I would think as Christians, we value that conversation. I don't believe this replaces community. It enhances community.
True gospel community takes feet and faces not just electrons and avatars. That's important.
But what happens online can enhance physical forms of community. In fact often it initiates it. I interact with many people on social media that I've never met. If I get a chance to meet them face-to-face, it's almost like we already know each other.
What other ways can it enhance community?
About a year ago, my daughter had a very serious illness. When I didn't show up for the National Conference on Preaching, and they announced what I was dealing with, people started tweeting about it. They tweeted messages like, "Pray for Ed Stetzer's daughter. She's in the hospital. She's very ill. They can't figure it out."
She's completely fine now, completely recovered. But it was a scary time. And it was powerful for me to see the response on social media. The people of God really rallied around us and poured out their prayers and support.
I felt it, and so did my family. I didn't need people to call me at that moment. Calling would have given me work that I couldn't do right then. But they made comments, they tweeted, they posted on Facebook. And I got to be with my daughter.
When my friend Matt Chandler had a seizure last year and I sent a tweet asking for prayers, the "re-tweet" function had the request going out to huge numbers of people within minutes. Matt was a trending topic on Twitter that day, which means that he was one of the ten most mentioned phrases or words in all of Twitter. People all over the world knew about his situation and prayed for Matt thanks to Twitter.
What are some potential pitfalls of using social media?
Like any tool there are people who use it poorly. There are "trolls," people who basically are out only to criticize and pick fights. The beauty is you don't have to respond to these people. I think pastors have to remember that they don't have to show up for every argument they're invited to, and you'll see plenty of arguments on social media.
For the most part, it's best to avoid them. Occasionally I jump, but by and large I don't. It's like the expression: never wrestle with a pig. You both get dirty, but the pig likes it.
What about those who say social media feeds your ego and fosters narcissism?
Almost every argument you could make against social media you could make against preaching, going on television, writing a book or even a newsletter. All of them can bring out that sort of sin. The danger is not social media. The danger is in widespread access to media. At the end of the day, if you have a character flaw, social media will probably exacerbate it and put it on display.
So it is important, with any of these media, to have accountability. I have two people who check me. I've told them, "If I cross the line, if I'm getting too self-referential, if I'm getting too irritated, or too whatever, I want you to come to me." I have filters. I have people who I can ask, "Should I tweet this?" I'm submitted to brothers and sisters in the body of Christ who can help guide me in the best way to do this.
Social media grants pastors unprecedented access to the private lives of their congregants. When you see someone post something that would require a pastoral response, what responsibility do you have to jump in?
If it's something sensitive, you want to wait to speak with them in person.
One of the things I teach the staff at our church is we don't deal with conflict over email. So why would we deal with conflict over social media?
But it does give you a window into the lives of your people. If you see that one of your people is consistently posting on Facebook about struggles with depression or marital issues, this gives you the opportunity ask the question, "What do I need to do?" or "How should our congregation minister to a hurting person?"
If you're not engaged in social media, you've chosen not to know those things. You have put your hands over your eyes, over your ears, and said, "I'm going to see no evil. I'm going to hear no evil." You lose an opportunity to speak into some of the hurt and the struggle that people have. It's important to be there, but at the same time, that's not always the best place to respond.
How much of their personal lives should pastors share on social media?
Part of what makes social media interesting is that's it's an extension of your personality, not simply your platform. And if you just share all the great places you're going, all the important people you're meeting, everyone is going to hate you. And rightly so. I try to share what's important to me.
If you follow me on Twitter, you know that I value time with my family. I'm going home for my daughter's 11th birthday. I'm going to tweet about that in a few minutes. It's not to say, "Look at what an awesome dad I am." But it is designed to convey my values and priorities.
I'm struck by how many pastors tell me that I'm mentoring them through my tweets about my family. I hope I'm a good example for them.
You mentioned the word platform. A lot of pastors use social media, not solely to minister locally, but to build a platform to reach a wider audience beyond their church. Is that a legitimate use of social media?
Well, it's hard for me to say anything against building a platform. I have a blog named EdStetzer.com. My Twitter handle is @EdStetzer, and I've got an "Ed Stetzer" Facebook page. My goal is to encourage Christians in the Western world to live on mission. And one of the tools I've used, maybe now the primary tool, is social media. The tricky thing is to not confuse the tool and the goal. If the tool becomes the focus—I just want to grow a platform—then I think that's detrimental and even destructive. If the goal is to tell people about something that's important, and you develop a platform in order to do that, I don't think that's bad. But it's not always easy to keep the goal and the tool distinct. I think every day those of us on social media need to ask, "Where am I crossing the line?"
Pastors are used to delivering monologues. But we can't think of social media as a sermon. It's a conversation. It's no mistake that the first word in social media is social.
If social media is all about you, I think that's the problem. It's okay to highlight how you've spoken into important issues. But it's crucial to point to what others are saying.
That's one of the reasons every day on my blog I put a roundup of what other people have said. I write essays, but I also spotlight what others are saying. And the ratio of my posts to what others are saying is at least three to one. If you're using social media to educate and encourage people, that's great. If you're using it as a tool to basically tell everyone how great you are, that's a problem.
Social media is a servant, not a master. But it can become a master if you try to derive your identity from it. How many followers do I have? Who is retweeting me?
I have a couple of pastor friends who all of a sudden exploded in the number of Twitter followers they had. But it turns out they were buying followers (you can do that) to make themselves look more influential. That's an example of using social media in the wrong way.
We need to be careful. At the same time, we can't shrink back from using the tools at our disposal to educate and encourage others.
—To read more from Stetzer on how pastors can get started on social media, visit edstetzer.com/socialmediastart
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