April 24, 2009 is the day I joined X which was known as Twitter back in the day. I think my first post was saying going to give this thing a try. I did and still there 15 years later. I do not recall when I joined Facebook, but I am on X more than I am on Facebook and other social media site.
Hard to believe that I stuck to social media which can be a dumpster fire at times, but I have learned a few things being on there. What I want to do in this post it to share 15 things I have learned on social media. I will cover the serious to the not-so serious.
1. Social media is not a replacement for your local church.
The church is the body of Christ that gathers for worship, fellowship, and receiving the word preached. Yes, I have had meaningful conversations on social media, but it is not to replace the church you are part of. The pastors and Bible teachers you follow are not replace your pastor even if he is not reformed as the case I have dealt with majority of my time on Twitter/X.
2. God is working.
One thing about social media is seeing the Lord at work in various churches all over the world and we can rejoice in that.
3. There is more false teaching than I realized.
The prosperity gospel is not the only false gospel. Legalism comes in many forms. Over the years, more and more false teaching has crept into the church and most pastors are not even aware of it.
4. There are better Christian books available.
Christian bookstores sell whatever sells even from false teachers. Most of them barely have a theology section anymore. Thankfully, through social media, I have learned there are better books available for Christians such as myself to read and be equipped. I will mention that I have won a few contests for free books over the years to which I am thankful.
5. Everyone is a critic.
Like it or not, someone is always going to criticize you for something. It could be how you dress or even your food preferences (more on that later). You can post a quote and people will jump your throat for quoting someone they don't agree with. They may not even like your opinion on the matter.
6. There are alternatives in worship music.
Hillsong, Bethel, and Elevation worship are the big three when it comes to worship music and used a lot in our churches. Thankfully, many on social media recommended artists that are more Biblically sound such as Sovereign Grace Music, CityALight, and Matt Boswell.
7. Trends indeed do come and go.
I did not need social media to learn that, but it seems there are even trends on the world wide web. I remember Music Monday on X, which people would share albums and songs to get the work week going. The trend was so popular that I had posts on Monday to highlight different worship songs and albums. Trends on social media can also mean what everyone is posting about and those change from day to day.
8. Some Presbyterians are not gracious.
I love my Presbyterian brother and sisters but some of them are the worst people I have encountered on social media just for being a Baptist. Some will go to great links to make you feel inferior because they truly believe they have...ahem...superior theology (Keith Foskey eat your heart out), and do not even get me started on R. Scott Clark.
9. People will follow you till they disagree with you.
My Twitter/X followers come and go. They start off agreeing with you till you say something they do not like. Sheesh. Whatever happened to agree to disagree?
10. People will block you for the heck of it.
I have been blocked by Joel Osteen for calling out his false gospel and calling him to repent. I have been blocked by others for calling out their false teaching such as Louie Giglio or not caving into their theology such as R. Scott Clark, which goes back to lesson 8. However, there are times I would find out someone blocked me that I had no interaction with. What did I do to deserve that and what did I say? Oh well.
11. Our world is indeed depraved.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones once said, if you have read the Bible, you would not be surprised by the state of the world. If you have been on social media as long as I have, you know that statement to be true. You do not even have to turn on the TV, you can check your phone to see how messed up our world is and rejoice knowing Christ is coming again.
12. There is a gold mine of podcasts.
Over the years, I have become a podcast junkie. It got worse when Spotify added them to their app. Thanks to social media, I have learned there is a great deal of God honoring content out there to listen from sermons to conversations on theology, culture, politics, etc.
13. Politics is nastier than I thought.
I knew politics was a subject that caused a lot of arguments, but social media has shown it to be a lot worse. No one can agree on anything and almost everyone has an opinion that results in insults.
14. Reformed does not always mean solid.
This one is hard to swallow at times. I used to think everyone who teaches the doctrines of grace was a solid believe, but as time progressed during my time on social media, that wasn't the case especially over the last few years with wokeism and Thomism creeping into the church.
15. Pineapple on pizza means war.
Twitter/X has a lot of food wars and the biggest one that seems to keep coming up is pineapple on pizza. This war questions people taste in food (going back to lesson 5) and even some are wondering if they can truly be friends. Here is my take, pineapple is good on pizza if prepared properly. I said what I said.
