Social Media and Youth Ministry: What Role Should it Have?

Depending on who you ask, social media and youth ministry might seem like savory peanut and jelly sandwich. Or, they mix like oil and water — and make you want to throw it out the window. Social media is a divisive topic, so we asked Rick Smith, and seasoned student pastor in Georgia to address this question during previous youth ministry conference on our campus.

We think he did a pretty good job helping everyone evaluate the current reality of technology among teens and gave a few helpful tips on where to set boundaries. If you’re a student pastor, you’re bound to connect with what he shares.

Let’s dig in.

How Much of a Role Should Social Media Have in Student Ministry?

It just depends. And I don’t say that jokingly.

There are varying philosophies related to social media and youth ministry, and it really does depend on your personal philosophy, your church’s philosophy, and your ministry context. To help you filter through that, I would give you some processes I would recommend you consider. First, you have to determine your rules of engagement. I think you need to determine this for yourself personally, and you have to determine this for your student ministry.

There are three possible answers I see that you could give here.

Retreat, immerse, or engage?

One, I’m gonna retreat from it, and this applies to culture in general, but in social media, I could retreat from it saying it’s of the devil, not using it at all because it’s completely bad. That’s an option that I could consider. Or you could say, “I’m gonna immerse myself in it.” Go all-in, use it, abuse it, no filters, no rules, no restrictions.

Engage With the Right Goal

Or the last and I think more logical response, consider how am I going to engage with it. What boundaries do I put in place? How can I use it? What should I use, what should I not use? But you have to determine that for yourself, and secondarily for your church, what are your rules for engagement? The options are retreat, immerse, or engage. Now, let’s just make the assumption that you’ve chosen to engage.

Now we need to figure out what we do with it and what role should it play.

1. Set boundaries

The first thing I would say you have to do is establish some boundaries.

• Personal boundaries
• Boundaries for your church

Some of those boundaries must be established for you personally. I’ll tell you one boundary I’ve established for myself — I never accepted a friend request from a kid, I just didn’t do it. I would accept a friend request from their parent, but I have never accepted a friend request from a kid. When they’ve graduated, I might consider doing it. But that is a boundary I have for myself.

You need to determine what those boundaries are for yourself. Even more so, you need boundaries as your church. This is where your senior pastor would need to weigh in. You need to ask, “What are going to be the boundaries for us as a ministry?” This factors into your child protection policy, as well as your social media guidelines for your paid staff and volunteers.

What are the boundaries that we are going to put in place to help both us personally and professionally?

2. Know the Culture

Secondly, in this topic of engaging, be sure to establish some boundaries regardless of what your personal level of engagement is.

Research the culture. For example, if you send an IMB missionary to a foreign field, they are taught to learn the culture before they engage deeply. So if your kids are using social media, you need to be aware of the culture of social media. Be a cultural missionary, research it, and be aware. They’re not just using Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram. Do you know what After School or TikTok is? Be aware of all the current social media platforms, then be intentional with how you use them.

Use Social Media Wisely in Your Youth Ministry

If you choose to use social media, use it well. If you’re gonna use it to promote your ministry, if you’re gonna use it as a marketing tool or a communication tool, do it right. If we are honoring God, we need to do all things with excellence. So do it well and remember that less is more.

I leave it at this — we know social media is a marketing tool. God did not call you to be a marketer, he called you to make disciples, so when you filter through what your boundaries are and you choose to use it, do it wisely and with limitations.

This panel discussion question was discussed during a previous youth ministry conference. Click here to listen to the entire panel discussion (9 topics).

Ricky Smith

Ricky Smith is the Lead Pastor at Calvary Baptist Church — a Snowbird partner church in Columbus, GA. He has a bachelor’s degree in Christian Education with an emphasis in Youth Ministry from Bryan College, in Dayton, Tennessee. He also holds a Masters degree in Theology from Liberty Baptist Seminary, and a Degree in Educational Leadership from Liberty University. Ricky served as a student pastor several years, and then joined the Georgia Baptist Mission Board as the NextGen Catalyst. He as worked with youth pastors across the state of Georgia to see this generation engaged with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.