I was listening to the recent ChurchMag podcast on Instagram in church. I though the guys did a great job of bring up some really important points like people’s privacy when engaging with God and also the dangers about putting people off church by being a fussy pot. However, I kept thinking about “Why” people want to use Instagram in church. Often we think about the consequences and yet don’t even think about why we do things, even though this can share more insight into our hearts.
Here are a few reasons I can think of for both good and bad.
Showing Off How Holy We Are
You know how Jesus talked about praying in private so only your Father sees instead of receiving our reward now…I sometimes wonder if things like Instagram, Foursquare check ins and even tweeting quotes from a church service can be used as a form of saying “look what a good christian I am!” I can’t see into peoples hearts and I am certainly not saying that this is the majority case or whatever but I am sure there are some people who post on social media to show that they are a good christian.
To Remember A Moment
I do wonder about the difference between being in the moment and recording it (both on a personal and corporate level), but while I generally try to make the most of moments and I have been critical of people not being “in the moment,” Instagram can be really helpful for remembering a moment. I’ve carried a notebook to church for years to try and remember important things from sermons of things God tells me during the service. I can easily imagine someone using their phone camera to save some notes onto Evernote or take a picture of a slide from the sermon to remind you of it.
Although this might not be the way you remember things, there is no reason why you should ban people who do remember that way (and the act of making a memorable moment certainly helps reinforce the memory.)
Habit
Some people are so used to recording events and taking pictures that you just keep doing it when you go to church. This isn’t necessarily good or bad but I’d certainly encourage anyone who is like this to gain a bit more self control and think a bit more. As Jeremy, Phil and Eric pointed out, there can be some consequences that can happen if we are careless and unthinking about taking photos in church.
To Share Jesus
Sometimes people just want to share Jesus. Maybe they want to show the amazing things happening in their church or the great things they’ve seen. Maybe they want to show their Christian contacts back in their hometown or perhaps they are trying to give their non Christian friends and colleagues a glimpse of Jesus. There could still be some negative consequences from sharing, but the intent is positive.
When Should You Share Your Pictures?
Another side that wasn’t really brought up in the podcast was when you should share an image. Generally we could say that you could choose either during or after the service. Perhaps, unsurprisingly, I favor sharing after the service as this allows us a bit more time to check our motives, not get distracted by the Internet, and at the same time, make sure we are respecting peoples privacy and not blocking them from Jesus. However, I am sure there could be some reasons for sharing during the service.
The End?
These are just some of my thoughts, There are bound to be some other reasons why people use Instagram and other services during a church service, but these were the immediate ones that came to my mind. I hope you will share some of your insights as well (especially if you use an image sharing service during or after service.)
Share your thoughts!
[Image via Paul Ebbo via Compfight cc & kyz via Compfight cc]
Kenny Jahng says
These are all interesting suggestions for why people Instagram in church. But I’d like to offer a couple more:
>> I think one of the impulses of taking photos is that people sense a “kodak moment” — in that they are capturing a high point, a happiness, something that is “good” in their eyes. We want to capture beauty whether it is a visually delicious meal, a special moment with loved ones, or a fantastic moment in church life. In some ways, not having a boundary where we segregate our thinking into having moments of the secular from spiritual is a better, integrated approach to identity. From a church leader perspective, would it be ideal that our people don’t flinch at the fact of capturing their church life and sharing it with their friends and networks? That they aren’t ashamed of their faith in this world that needs so much witness?
>> Our church also actively utilizes Instagram (i.e. This past Sunday, our teaching pastor just called our church to instagram with a hashtag and we have set-up scripts to scan Instagram and pull in those photos to our FB photo albums — which also appear on our FB page) in ways that harness the community engagement. Here we aren’t taking photos in a one to many broadcast/megaphone model. We’re taking photos and Instagramming in community so that we can see and reflect on each other’s perspectives on a given subject.
>> Instagram is in a position to almost kick out email and Facebook for connecting and communicating with each other — at least for our younger digital generation. If our church leaders and volunteers are absent from that large part of our congregation’s life, doesn’t it further contribute to the divide that separates church from Monday-Saturday daily life?
Just some thoughts to help the conversation going…
Chris Wilson says
Those are some great uses of Instagram. I am wary of the “kodak moments” for the reasons that Phil mentioned in the podcast. Imagine if you tweeted “John Doe Totally broke down in church #powerofgod” or something similar. John may have no issue but at the same time there may be privacy issues. There are countless example of seemingly innocuous photos where later people notice something that you could easily miss the first x times. I just think we need to encourage people to make sure they aren’t going to share those moments but instead share the better “kodak moments” as you put them 🙂
I’m really interested in your second one. Is this a sort of project to continue the lesson during the week? For example take a photo of a scripture on it? How have you applied the sermon to your life? I’m just interested to see some more examples of it in practice (maybe you could just post a link with your churches Facebook page)
Honestly I hadn’t even considered Instagram like this! It shows how the tech is evolving (especially with instagram direct). I love the idea that you could ping members with the church notices for the week. I’ve also heard that Instagram is often the first app children have on a smart device so it makes perfect sense!
I agree let’s keep this discussion going and hopefully some more people have even more uses for Instagram in church. I love what you guys are doing with Instagram. Thanks Kenny 🙂