#Godtalk (by Lauren Anders)

From Lauren Anders:

#evangelism

At the end of September, Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake acted in a sketch where they used hashtags in an ordinary conversation.

If you haven’t seen it, you should.
It’s hilarious.
And relevant to this post.
And did I mention that it’s hilarious?

(Note: There’s one swear at the end that isn’t quite bleeped out.)

In his book Understanding Media, Marshall McLuhan focused on the effects of media on society. He defined media as technological extensions of the body. (http://www.marshallmcluhan.com/biography/)  It was McLuhan who famously said, “The medium is the message.” A short summary of the meaning of that statement is that how you say something is just as important as what you say.

The connection made me sad.

If media is indeed the technological extension of the body, then the rising popularity of hashtags as a medium sends the message that our words do not matter.

Brevity is prized over depth.
Conversations, as illustrated between Fallon and Timberlake, become parodies.

As a speaker and a writer, I love words.

I love conversations over cups of hot chocolate.
I love hand-written cards with meaningful words.
I love relationships based on shared life, communicated through words.

And I love sharing how amazing God is.
I love spewing joy through verbal expressions of praise.
(I also love dancing with a tambourine, but that’s not really relevant to this train of thought.)

#kindness
#love
#jesusrocks

I’ve seen all of these on the internet, but none of them speaks to the depth and breadth of Christ’s love.
It doesn’t speak to His majesty, power, or lordship.
It reduces the power of conversation and relationship, not only with God, but also with each other.
Unfortunately, this issue doesn’t remain in the realm of twitter and hashtags.
I don’t tweet, and I don’t hash tags, but I have sometimes fallen into the trap of believing that clever communication trumps earnest explanation.

“Have you accepted Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior?”
Yes I have.

But until recently, I had no idea what that popular evangelistic phrase meant.
It was short.
Seemingly theologically sound.
And easy to remember
#jesusasmypersonallordandsavior

But did it tell the full story?
Nope.
And was it actually in the Bible?
Nope.

A few months ago, I caught myself using the above phrase, and I wondered why that was in my Christian phraseology.  I didn’t really remember being taught it. Maybe I read it somewhere?  So I scoured the Bible, looking for actual declarations of salvation.  Here’s a pretty clear and powerful passage from Romans 10:9-13:

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.  For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. As scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.” For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him,  for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

The references are from Isaiah 28:16 and Joel 2:32, respectively.
Treasured words, passed on through generations.
So I came to the conclusion that I want to treasure my words as well – not just in facebook posts, but in everyday conversations.

I want to treasure the way I speak of God and about Him.
I want to know what I say and why I say it.
If the medium is the message, then I want to work hard to ensure that my medium accurately portrays and proclaims the gospel.

Because reducing the message of Christ to a trite tweet would be #ridiculous.