Comments on: Digital Boundaries in the Church and Why I’m on Facebook and Twitter

By: Using Facebook Questions For Easy Surveys | SociableNews.com

Using Facebook Questions For Easy Surveys | SociableNews.com — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

[...] Digital Boundaries in the Church and why I’m on Facebook and Twitter [...]

By: rodlie

rodlie — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

I think Jason had a point, though. I'm thinking, for example, of some of my youth in my churches. I wouldn't feel I have the "right" to befriend them. Perhaps they wouldn't want me to see stuff on their wall or something like that. But if they friend me, they're giving me permission to enter into their space. I know for a young person, anyway, I'd want to give them the power to give me permission to enter into their space. But if someone is older, of course, I wouldn't see any issue.

By: rodlie

rodlie — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

That's a great link. Thanks for sharing. Yeah, I agree. You must be the same in both places. Authenticity is a biggie for me.

By: Luke Self

Luke Self — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

I don't know the exact figure, but probably 80% of my FB "friends" are former students/parishioners. Making a rule that pastors/teachers cannot "befriend" their parishioners/teachers on FB is kind of naive, I think. To refuse to "befriend" a parishioner/student on FB is only addressing an expression of the problem, not the problem itself. For example, to piggy-back off of what Paul was saying, if a pastor/teacher is in danger of having an inappropriate relationship with his/her parishioners/students online, it's a danger offline, too (and vice a versa). The world is online, and the distinction between online and offline ethics is fading. There will obviously always be a difference in the way people interact online, as opposed to offline, but the guiding principles/ethics behind online interaction shouldn't be much (if any) different than offline interaction.

By: Jason

Jason — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

You pose some interesting points here. There are other angles too, but all in all, I've come to decide that it's much more beneficial for me to be 'friends' with my parishoners than to avoid them on FB or avoid FB in order to avoid them. But as a general rule, I allow them to friend-request me, just so that I'm providing the opportunity to be respectful of their space.

By: PaulSteinbrueck

PaulSteinbrueck — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Hey Rodlie, great topic for discussion. I think a person's comfort level with being Facebook friends with their pastor is probably the same as their comfort level with being offline friends with their pastor. If you can be your real self around your pastor offline, you can probably do the same online. If you get uncomfortable and feel like you have to clean up your act around your pastor offline, you're probably going to feel the same way online. There are lots of great benefits for pastors to use social networking tools like Facebook & Twitter. I wrote about that not too recently & referenced a newspaper article about the topic as well. Social Networking Sites Benefit Pastors, Congregations in Many Ways http://blog.ourchurch.com/2009/11/13/social-netwo...