In the spring of 2020 churches around the United States began to close their doors due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This gave rise to the question, “How are we to worship together?” For many churches the answer was one word, online. Many pastors and church leaders quickly became their community’s tech guru. And churches that already had online streaming began doubling down on investment. 

Now the year is 2025, and most churches that began or ramped up their online engagement have not scaled back. Zoom gatherings gave way to posting pre-recorded worships on Sunday mornings. Pre-recording gave way to live streaming. And now, live-streaming is giving way to social media strategy, communication coordination, branding, and more. 

Speaking from my own experience as a pastor, the fastest growing part of my job is content creation for social media and website management. Recently my church went through a self-study examining our programs and engagement with the community. After months of interviews, observation note-taking, site visits, and data analysis, our consultant found that one of our biggest areas for growth was with our “online presence.” His recommendation was to “discuss enhancing the church’s online presence.” He explained, “Although the pandemic is over, respondents still reported the use of technologies if they were unable to attend Sunday services. Given the missional values of the church, we wonder if it could invest time and energy to extend its dynamic ministries into virtual spaces.” I would assume that many churches today would receive similar recommendations.

At first I greeted this recommendation with great joy. I view social media as a way to reach younger people. It can be a creative outlet beyond sermon writing or planning youth groups. And, it can be yet one more way to get the message out about our values and mission, upcoming events, and recent endeavors. I knew that it would take more effort and work hours, some extra volunteers, and such. Yet, it seemed worthy of the effort for what it could bring to the church. 

My church specifically uses Facebook and Instagram, both owned and operated by Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta Company. We try to post a variety of content regularly. But, after a few months of using hashtags for content boosting and geo-location I was surprised at what happened. Before I knew it our page was being recommended next to Christian Nationalist content, homophobic and transphobic posts, anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant rhetoric, and more. When you searched “#christian” many of the results are like this. Content that is harmful, and frankly dangerous. 

At the same time this was happening some of the youth in the youth group at my church began to follow our Instagram page, including a few youth who were in fifth grade or younger. Now, the church Instagram page is public, and all the direct messages are archived. But still, there was an uncomfortable feeling when I got the notification that they began to follow. 

It is becoming more and more apparent that social media is harmful to the mental health of teens and young adults. The American Psychological Association recently found that teens are spending an average of nearly five hours on social media per day. And, among those teens who use social media with the most frequency 41% rate their mental health as “poor” or “very poor.” Most disturbingly though, is that the APA found that among those teens with the highest usage, one in ten report thoughts of suicide and self harm. One in ten.

The jumps in depression, anxiety, suicidality, and self harm among teens correlate with the advent of social media. And this is just the effect it has on our young people. In 2022 an Amnesty International study found that Facebook’s algorithm promoted anti-Rohingya hate speech and fake information, which in part led to a suppression of facts related to the real world violence and genocide taking place in Myanmar. 

These are not the only examples of the harm social media can do.

There is a real ethical dilemma knocking at the church doors. On the one hand how is the church expected to engage a world that is growing more dependent on technology and the internet without engaging with social media? On the other hand how can the church stand for justice, mercy, peace, and compassion while also engaging with social media? 

Elon Musk said that he hoped Twitter/X would be a digital town square. But, anyone on Twitter/X knows that the town square he envisioned has been overrun with hate speech and x-rated content. But, is the internet the new public sector in which the church is meant to engage? If Karl Barth were around today would he encourage us to read the bible app on our laptops with the New York Times app open on our phones?  

I wonder what a Christ-like third way looks like online. I wonder what it looks like to stand on the digital street corner with our gospels in hand, preaching good news. After all, the God of the universe is still God even in the Metaverse.

And for the record, I still operate the church Facebook and Instagram. But, I do so holding all of these complexities in my heart. It may be a good idea for all of us who utilize social media for our church communities to begin praying this adapted prayer from Psalm 19:

May the words of my mouth,

And the meditations of my heart,

And the content of my creation,

Be acceptable in your sight.

Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

Amen.