On Social Media and "Deconversions"

The following is an excerpt from my message Sunday. You can check it all out here.

I think I’d be remiss to not mention social media in this sermon. Really in most sermons. But think about the two ways we see it primarily used. Posturing. Building and maintaining this identity. Maybe your kids in rage just threw their breakfast on the floor. But you still salvage at least a pancake. You bribe them to smile. You get that on social media. We put forth this image. Of who we are. Who we want to be. Of what we’re for. Right? And what we’re against. We rage against those who disagree with us.

Posturing and freaking. OUT. Fearing for and worrying about our destiny. If your kids eat that four-syllable ingredient, they’re soon GOING TO DIE. If this candidate gets in office, we’re all suddenly gonna be living in a totalitarian state. We share our fears. We worry those around us. Social media sure has a lot of raging - by people wanting to defend who they are, what they’re about. But there is also so much freaking out - by those who don’t believe we have a God who controls all things.

I also think about something that’s been circulating via social media. At least in the Christian world. These deconversions. People giving their testimony on how they turned away from Jesus. Joshua Harris was the big one. A couple of weeks ago it was Rhett and Link. But I can’t stop thinking about Christ’s parable of the soils. How some seeds are thrown on the ground. They never take root. Others go down deep, grow into big plants, and bear fruit for years and years.

But there are two types that hit the ground that don’t last. Those that go in the rocky soil. Those are the ones that embrace the gospel, but trials come, and they don’t persevere. They forget who controls their destiny. They turn from the Lord. There are also those that go in the thorns. Those are the ones who come to believe, but then fall in love with the riches of the world. And they, too, turn away. They find their identity in the wrong things.

What we see happening is what has always happened. We see these two kinds of soils in Mark. We see these two twin struggles in Esther. Comforts and trials both tempt us. The palace. The gallows. We start having doubts. We pull out of community. And then here comes the Instagram post or the YouTube video. It’s our moment to stand. And we give in. We give up. Our great enemy wants to use pleasures, use sufferings, to take us out. The more we forget where our identity is found, as well as who holds our destiny, the easier and quicker that will come.