It's the story that just won't die.
Here are my further adventures in Facebook.
Since my last article on Facebook there've been psycho cyber-stalkers, privacy issues, identity fraud (hint: Don Carson on Facebook is not the real Don Carson), as well as nay-sayers and critics. For the latter group, modifying Yoda, I quote "Ignorance leads to fear. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hatred. Hatred leads to the Dark Side."
The verdict's in: Facebook works - if you work it.
As a contact gaining / development / management tool, it is without peer. Never forget a birthday again (guaranteed). Never forget a face again (sorta guaranteed). Forever know the profile of each person you minister to (beautiful).
For something that's free, its spider-Web of organically growing relationships is superior to any existing stand-alone (i.e. disconnected from the Web) contact management software package of which I am aware. Why? Because of its constantly evolving social nets, you are never hard-wired into just your contacts. Your reach increases as your friends add more friends to their networks and so on, and so on.
In the last six weeks, seeing my friends list explode past one thousand, the opportunities for re-connecting fringe people to church, evangelising new contacts, and consolidating disparate networks of people into interest/action groups for Christian ministry has been nothing short of phenomenal.
But it's not magic. It works. If you work it.
I've approached Facebook with one over-riding fundamental question: How can I dominate this and use it for God's kingdom?
To that end, I've engaged in
" for pre-evangelism/evangelism/Christian involvement rather than as a cold stranger? Do I really need to answer that question?
So the question I now get is: How do you find the time?
The partial answer is: it's my job! As a Christian minister, I'm all about relationships and friendships, focused around the Word of God and prayer. What a perfect medium in which to exercise my work! Other answer: I keep it running in the background on my computer. This suits my multi-tasking style of work and allows me to drop into Facebook several times a day to engage and disengage as necessary.
The adventure has really just begun.
Looking forward to your ideas on how to use this technology for the 3rd Face/phase"
Andrew is Sydneyanglicans.net's resident digital scholar and the pastor of the Asian Bible Church (ABC), a congregation of St Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney. ABC, it's easy as 1-2-3, do-re-mi"
