I was recently criticized by a pastor for promoting my blog on Twitter and Facebook. He said these sorts of actions made me guilty of self-promotion.
Ironically, I know this pastor, and he himself has a website and two books, both of which he promotes through email and direct mail marketing. When I challenged him on this, he said he does this because he has a message which he thinks other people will benefit from hearing. He went on to say that my message bordered on heretical and my methods of promoting my message proved it.
Ah… So when you speak the truth, it is okay to send junk mail and spam to people who didn’t ask for it, but when you don’t speak the truth, any method you use is wrong, even if it is permission marketing, where you only send information to people who ask for it and benefit from it.
I am speaking tongue-in-cheek, of course. The bottom line was that this pastor didn’t like what I was saying, and therefore, didn’t like that people were reading what I was teaching, and viewed any form of trying to get my message out as self-promotion.
However, I think there is a difference between self-promotion, and truth-promotion. I try to promote truth, and keep myself out of of it as much as possible.
I feel that if you have truth to teach to others, you have every responsibility to get it out to as many people as possible who want to hear it and who will benefit from it.
This is why I was so thrilled to be chosen this week to join Michael Hyatt’s Platform Launch Team. I will share more with you in the near future.
For now, here is the bottom line of getting your message out: When it comes to spreading your message and being heard in a noisy world, there are no magic bullets. There are no overnight successes.ย But there are a few tips and tricks we can learn to help others find us, and to interact with them in a meaningful way which grows our platform and helps spread the message which God has given to each one of us to share.
What do you think about sharing content online, and promoting it through Twitter and Facebook? Is this evil and wrong, or is it just the modern day method of preaching in the marketplace?
Ja osobno mislim da svi ljudi trebaju da doznaju za ime Isusa Krista!O njegovom rodjenju i uฤenju,kako da ลพivimo..kako da se odupremo zlu koje vreba svakog trenutka .A za to se Isus pobrinuo ostavivลกi nam Sveto pismo ! Svoju rijeฤ! Istinu!I mislim da nije greh govoriti ljudima da Isus postoji!
Translation:
I personally think that all people need to learn the name of Jesus Christ about his birth and learning how to live .. how to resist the evil that lurks at every moment. And to be sure Jesus left us the Bible! His word! Truth! I think it is not a sin to tell people that Jesus was there!
Thanks, Ljiljana! I couldn’t agree more.
Hvala, Ljiljana! Nisam mogao sloลพiti viลกe.
(A little tongues speaking going on there…) ๐
I personally have ask Pastors, Sunday school teachers,a few people online,one Pastor,personal friends and strangers if they wanted to study the Bible with me. because I needed help.Long story short.I am a slow learner and need time to absorb info.I don’t like to just touch subject matter here and there.I like to go chapter by chapter and that takes to much time out of peoples busy day.O well, God has all the time in the world, and I have till I die.because I was on the computer a certain day, at a certain time,looking for a certain thing. I found a sight that has just what I needed.Time!.thank you very much ๐
Keep studying, Shirley, even if no one else will study with you. We can be an online community of Bible students.
I guess it depends on the context, like with most things. If the ONLY thing you do on Twitter and Facebook is promote your blog/business/book/whatever, you’re doing it all wrong!
Travis,
True. Both need that personal interaction and promotion of the stuff of others as well.
In 2012, if your stuff isn’t true, helpful or interesting it will be ignored no matter how you promote it.
Promotion, like so many things in life requires wisdom and sensitivity to your audience. Hard rules don’t make sense.
There is nothing wrong with Twitter, Facebook, Pintrest or any other means of promoting content.
I’ve lived through so many of this litmus tests in the church: hair length, KJV only, drums, guitars or any other popular instrument used in worship, make-up on women, pants on women.
Now it’s email OK, Twitter not OK?
People who dream up such tests should read Matthew 23.
Woe!
One Teacher, one Father, one Christ (Messiah, Deliverer, Chosen/Annointed One), one Good Shephered, one Spirit… the all in all.
Even so Lord Jesus, come.
-M.
Mark McIntyre,
That’s true. Compelling and informative content is primary. You are doing a good job of this on your blog.
If the ideas you and I propose should be practiced by the “church”, the paychecks, position, authority, power and control of many would presumably be seriously jeopardized. Therein lies the rub. We’re a “bur in their saddle”, as the old saying goes.
I say “Keep it up Jeremy!” Those who call the church to return to her first love have never been popular. Would that we too be accused of “loving and serving sinners”. That should be a worthy epitaph to be carved on our gravestones.
Jeremy:
What a shame. No one desiring to reflect the light of Christ ever self-promotes, they promote Christ!
I think I know who you are referring to and I suspect he regrets what he said, otherwise it is hypocrisy adn no one wants to be that guy.
Mike
Romans 14:4: ” Who are you to judge someone elseโs servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.”
Romans 14:13-14: “Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean.”
Keep doing what you believe Jeremy. : )
There is only one problem and it is not promoting one’s writing. It is promoting writing that reflects opinion rather than a contextual and agreed upon doctrine of the Bible. Opinions are a subset of Relativism. If you have something to say and it is contextually sound, promote it. I do all the time. Jesus promised the Holy Spirit would light upon all believers and help us in our understand of God. Not just Pastors.
There are many resources to present our non-pastoral writings and still be of sound doctrine. We never know whose heart will be touched.
Rick