Who’s Following You?

Social media is the hot thing right now. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social networks are growing exponentially. More and more of us are “life-casting” our every activity, thought and feeling via YouTube, Ustream, and blogs. We are becoming a very public society.

I want to ask you a question. “Who’s Following You?”

I get multiple friend requests on Facebook and dozens of new follower notices from Twitter each day. Many are friends from High School or College. Several are church planters and other Pastors from across the country. A growing number of followers however are people who live and work around me. Some are from the church but most are people who follow me because of my association with the local Chamber of Commerce or because I am Portland Trailblazer fan or because I tweet about technology.

I’ve noticed an interesting phenomena taking place. This week a couple of non-Christians I had a Chamber of Commerce meeting with joked about my sermon on tithing. How did they know I had preached on the topic? They follow me on Twitter and I tweeted, “Church went well. Only one person walked out when I started talking about tithing.” Last week a 70 year old Christian woman started a conversation with me about how many coffee meetings I have each day. How did she know that? She reads my Facebook status updates. Now when I call my mom to tell her what’s been going on she says, “I know. I read that on your blog.” My wife even changed her Facebook status to say: “Is it sad that I have to check Facebook to know where my husband is?”

We live in a new age! There are many applications that can analyze your Twitter influence or grade your blog. I’m not so concerned about the number of your followers but I am concerned with what they see. As they follow you what do they see? Do they see an arrogant, uncompassionate, know-it-all or do they see a humble, empathetic, struggling-to-figure-it-all-out follower of Christ?

My prayer is the same as Paul’s in 1 Corinthians 11:1, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” (NIV) I want my followers to see the real me. I want them to see my struggles. I want them to see my faith in tough times as well as good times. Most importantly I want them to see Jesus!

Followers are young and old. They are Christians and Non-Christians. A caution in this always-connected world is to be careful what you post because you never know who’s following you!

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