Facebook, Mission Trips, and Other Pearls of Wisdom

There is a blog called “Stuff Christians Like” Jon Acuff, the author of the blog writes tongue in cheek and gives us the opportunity to chuckle at ourselves. I am sharing his comments on Facebook postings after a mission trip…

No matter where you go, mission trips are transforming experiences. Outlooks on wealth are transformed. Views on how God works are transformed. Prayer requests are transformed. Profiles are transformed. Of course by profiles, I am referring to social networking sites . It makes sense that when someone comes back different the way that they present themselves to the world via Facebook should also change. I will delve into the difference categories that encompass this mountaintop-upload.

Profile Picture
OK, this is the most visible and important change. Of course a picture alone means nothing. Who is in your picture is very important, so you must crop wisely. Kids are a must. You can do the one kid “building strong, personal relationships” look, the multiple kids “this is my posse that I am discipling” look, or the tons of kids “look at the impact I am making” look. Make sure to at least be hugging a few of the kids.

Facebook albums
If you thought the power of the Holy Spirit was overwhelming, just wait for the tag-fest of candid photo moments that happen on a mission trip. Most pictures are of the group all staring at something unseen, but some may be people speaking, their living situations, local delicacies, host families, and lots of cute kids.

Friends
While I hypothesize that there are only five or six high schoolers across the country that are not already friends on Facebook, you must friend everyone immediately after waking up from your 12 hours of sleep that you got on your first night back.

Groups
If you don’t have a group called “First Baptist Goes to Guam” on Facebook, I’m not really even sure you went on the trip (Note: Our trip was documented on Blogspot – much more sophisticated Jon)

While Jon's blog is written to give us a laugh at ourselves, there is an underlying truth to his words and why is that? For many of us we post on Facebook, send emails to our team members, and stop strangers at Publix to talk about our trip because it is a mountaintop experience and we want the world to know How Great is Our God and as for the Facebook postings... it sure beats playing Farmville! RS