Question
Should Churches Be on Social Media?
Yes, with discernment. Social media can extend a church’s witness, teaching, and connection — but churches that adopt social media without reflection often absorb its formative pressures: optimizing for engagement, performing spiritual authenticity, and measuring faithfulness in metrics that have no theological warrant.
The benefits are real. Social media allows churches to reach people who would not yet walk through the door, share teaching with members during the week, build connection between gatherings, and witness publicly. None of this is trivial. Refusing all digital presence is its own kind of formation choice, and not always the wisest one.
The risks are also real. Churches that measure success by engagement metrics begin to optimize for what produces engagement — which is rarely the same as what produces formation. Churches that perform online begin to treat worship, teaching, and community as content. Pastors with significant followings face formation pressures their predecessors did not. The healthier pattern is to use social media instrumentally — as one channel among many, evaluated by whether it serves the church’s actual mission, not by whether it grows. Churches whose social media presence is shaped by their formation rather than their formation by their social media presence are using the tool faithfully.
Key Takeaways: Use Social Media Instrumentally
Core Concept: Social media serves the church’s mission; it does not define it.
The Risk: Optimizing for engagement, performing spirituality, treating worship as content.
Diagnostic: Is our social media shaped by our formation, or our formation by our social media?
The “So What”: A church that lets metrics define success has already accepted a non-theological standard.
About the Author
James Spencer, PhD, is a theologian, author, and host of the Thinking Christian podcast, where he writes and speaks on Christian formation, political theology, and technology. He holds a PhD in Theological Studies from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and completed the Institute for Educational Management at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He serves as President of the D.L. Moody Center in Northfield, Massachusetts, as adjunct faculty in Wheaton College’s MA in Leadership program, and as an Associate Research Fellow at the Kirby Laing Centre for Public Theology. His writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, Christianity.com, and Sojourners. His forthcoming book is Discipleship and Discernment in the Digital Age (InterVarsity Press, Fall 2026). Learn more at jamesgspencer.com.