Some things are easy to do online. Want to broadcast a sermon? That's simple. Just post it on your website—or YouTube. Need to inform people about an upcoming event? Blast your email list. Want help with sermon prep? There's an app for that. Dozens of them, actually.

But not every ministry task is quite so easily accomplished via the Internet. How would you, for example, give a cup of cold water in Jesus' name online? Or comfort someone who is grieving? Not every ministry task can be accomplished online, but it is where people are spending more and more of their lives.

Social media is here to stay, and it is already the norm. It's the reason family vacations become global broadcast events via Instagram and every popular television series has its own #hashtag to allow people to see tweets from fellow fans in real time. If you're waiting for this "fad" to pass, you'll be waiting forever. Leaders who fail to turn the technological corner will ...