Rich Kao

My good friend, Michael Fletcher, Senior Pastor of multi-thousand congregation at Manna Church just posted this at his blog.  I re-post here in it's entirety b/c it's great content and it represents a man who's willing to change to reach this generation....

I just returned from a conference on social media - made my head swim. Of course, to the young guys I took with me, all of this stuff, the bulk of which was less than five years old, was old hat. They were very underwhelmed. My first take was, “Who has time for all this?” Who has time to tweet every thought that comes into their head, take enough pictures to keep their facebook page interesting, or have enough profound thoughts to post in a daily or weekly blog? BUT, in order to reach this generation, we have to learn to speak the language they speak in the manner in which they speak it. It isn’t about information; its about connection; its about being. You don’t have to be profound or picture perfect or insanely articulate. You just have to be yourself and connect. And once that connection happens (provided it is real and not simply a form or social media manipulation) ministry can happen. The church HAS to get this! Not using social media in this generation is like preaching in a robe in the previous generation. Who has time for this? Who doesn’t? The man who ignores social media will wake up one day in a room by himself preaching a message that no one can hear.

Michael