It’s weird to have social media as a part of my job. I think I’ll never get over how strange it feels to use Facebook during the work day, and know it’s what I’m supposed to be doing.

For those of us working with social media and ministry, we’re often trying to work through what I often call “the big question” with new technologies: How does this help me accomplish my goals? What do I gain from this?

No one’s asking that question about Facebook these days, and less and less people are asking it about other social networks. Everyone’s there, and that’s where you have to be if you want to be where everyone is, clearly.

So, the big question is: If social networks are supposed to represent little online communities, and the final factor forcing people to join one is so that they won’t miss out on what their community is doing, how do we take advantage of that community-building function in our ministry?

With social media and InterVarsity’s Multiethnic Ministries department, this will mean working through the building of a nationwide community of students, staff, faculty, and alumni who care about matters of ethnic and multiethnicity. Thankfully, InterVarsity’s Emerging Scholars Network has gone ahead of us in a very similar venture, and done a fantastic job.

Please, pray that we can create this sort of God-breathed community of folks looking to see God reconcile all people to each other and to himself.