How Your Church Can Share God Stories Online

Is God is actively at work in your life and the lives of the people of your local church?

• Are prayers being answered?
• Are people coming to faith in Jesus Christ?
• Are people’s lives being transformed?
• Are those in need being helped?
• Is God sending you out to other parts of the world?

If so, are you sharing these stories online?

“Witness”

Christians talk a lot about “witnessing” to others. The word “witness” has become Christian slang for telling other people about Jesus. But the real meaning of the word is “to testify to.”

Think of it in a legal context. In court, a witness does not have to know the whole case. A witness is not expected to craft an argument that will convince people of something. A witness just tells others what he or she has seen.

As Peter and John said to the religious leaders who arrested them:

We cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard. -Peter & John (Acts 4:20)

Sharing God Stories Online

When God does something really amazing , we want Him to get the glory He deserves, right? But can God be glorified if no one knows what He has done? I don’t think so, at least not fully.  The more people who hear the stories of what God is doing in our lives, the more glory He gets.

My experience is that most churches do a pretty poor job of telling the God stories happening in their communities.

Sometimes it’s a culture problem, where the church leaders seem too busy preaching and announcing things to listen to people’s God stories. Sometimes it’s a platform problem where people don’t have place to share stories.

While a culture problem may be more complicated, a platform problem can solved much more easily because there are so many ways stories can be gathered and shared online.  Here are 7 suggestions:

1. Ask you congregation on social media or in an email, “How have you seen God at work in your life this week?”
2. Ask you congregation on social media or in an email, “What prayers have you seen God answer this week?”
3. Most of the time when someone is baptized they share the story of how they came to faith in Jesus. Record video of these stories. Share them on YouTube, Facebook and the church website (with the person’s permission).
4. Start a “God Stories” blog
5. When someone shares a God story with you in a face to face conversation, ask them if they’d be willing to share it with the congregation during a service or via video.
6. Include at least one God story in every church newsletter.
7. Lead by example. Commit to publicly sharing your own God stories and ask other leaders in your church to do the same.

When you first start trying to share stories, it will probably be difficult. People may be reluctant to share their story even when asked. But as more stories are shared and people see they way God is glorified and people are encouraged by what God is doing among them, your culture will change. When God does something awesome, people will start thinking, “I can’t wait to share this story!”

If your church does not have a website where you can blog, embed videos, and publish/send newsletters, you can build a church website here.

Discuss

• What is your church currently doing to share God stories online?
• What action are you going to take to help your church tell more God stories online?