SOCIAL MEDIA: THE “DURING CHURCH WORSHIP” EFFECT PART II

The contention that God has with the young people in this age as regards Social Media use is the matter of addiction and nomophobia and how it interferes with our worship of God and other personal devotional activities that draw us closer to the Cross.

To begin with, I grew up knowing that early morning devotion as the first on our to-do list for the morning, and even last thing before bed. Today, the “busy nature of the World” has changed the matter for most people; it’s now our plans and schedules first before any other and so at night. To add to the struggle, the internet/media age imposes that our smart phones and devices becomes the first thing we interact with early in the morning in order to check our mails, how many likes we’ve got on facebook, messages, etc. and the last thing we use at night. This goes on and on in cycles that form the pattern for our daily lives and interaction.

The root of the matter before us is not even a question of whether we bring our devices to church or using them during any kind of corporate worship but an issue of how the use of these devices have engulfed our subconscious mind to the point of uncontrolled and persistent use on a more personal ground.

Here is it: how does your mobile phone/ social media use interfere with your personal life on a more personal ground?

The main challenge of smart phone & social networking use as established in the last issue is interference with functional faith-building activities for young people. A lot of young people build their lives and activities around their devices and the internet. All their engagements and daily habit becomes reflected there. Their major influences becomes the general media. This grows to a level of addiction that it begins to interfere with personal devotion and establishing separate time for communion with others either at a social level and most importantly fellowship (church) level.

It now becomes difficult to separate time for close study now of the word and in the place of prayer. Free time now becomes internet time or social media time. Generally speaking, the thing about the internet if not controlled, is that it destroys proper physical/ social interaction.

This brings us to the main fact that persistent use of phones during worship and church fellowships is first the function of an already existing interference in our personal altar as believers. It is not a matter of “just using” phones in church as a casual or careless act. It’s an already established victory over the mental independence of the believer in the place of worship. It’s the outcome of an already fallen standard in the personal lives and worship of the believer who is engaged with the cyberspace.

There must be established the firm belief in the mind of the believer that there is first a real life apart from the internet or cyberspace. There is not tangible interaction than the one we’re are first in. i.e. the physical. Until we can enjoin our immediate social interaction all we do online will be fake. This means that we should invest more in our offline connections so that those online will be productive.

Besides faith-building activities, the believer must also constantly set out time to build all facets of his/her live including intellectual, social, mental, financial and other areas of life so that we can compete well with and in the circular world. We must grow ourselves using consciously allocated time apart from the internet and social media. I have been asking myself if Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (the brain behind facebook) spends as much time on facebook as I do. And to be honest, I don’t think he does. Mr. Zuckerberg cannot be spending so much time online, unproductively, and still come up with smart ideas like he is doing today. The point remains, the media must not conquer our time for self-development to the point of conquering our altar of worship…that will be a disaster.

In addition to this, is the contention whether or not we should use electronic bibles (e-bibles) on mobile devices (including; smart phones, tablets iPad, etc.) during worship. To these argument, there is no express answer but I will share my thoughts on that in the next issue 

Believers, especially the younger generation must have reverence for God when it comes to both personal and corporate worship. We must learn to seclude our heart and saturate our minds and thoughts in the place of worship. We must learn true selective attention when it comes to devoting mind in the place of communion. 

God must be sacredly sovereign in our hearts and attract our undivided attention the place of worship.   

The church leadership must teach the body discipline in the place of worship. This goes beyond the use of phones alone in worship places, but also digs deep into other lifestyle of the believer. We must grow a church with healthy worship, interaction and communication habits.

In all, we must consciously learn and instill really spiritual discipline in and out of worship places in order to strike a balance in our social, cyber and spiritual life. The Believer must be wholesome and live up the full responsibility of the Cross as we are called to.

Finally, “… rebuke them sharply [deal sternly, even severely with them], so that they may be sound in the faith and free from error.” Titus 1.13 AMP