Facebook: The New Prayer Chain

Remember the church prayer chain? Many churches around North America still have active prayer chain ministries. For those who think a prayer chain is a piece of jewelry, let me enlighten you.

A prayer chain consists of a group of volunteers who agree to pray for prayer requests as they are submitted by church members. Prayer requests are directed to the person at the top of the "chain" (usually the leader of the prayer chain ministry.) He or she then delivers that prayer request to a small group of individual volunteers (in the "olden days" this occurred by telephone.) Each of those individuals then delivers that same request to a group of individual volunteers underneath him/her, and so on until everyone in the prayer chain ministry has received the request. It's a fast way to get multiple people (dozens or even hundreds) interceding in prayer on behalf of one person. (Think "Pyramid Scheme," except in this version you get prayed for instead of ripped off.)

My church has a very active prayer ministry, though it's a little less formal than an organized "prayer chain," and probably a lot faster than the old-fashioned telephone variety. Prayer requests can be submitted to a staff, board or prayer team member. These three groups of people work closely together to ensure that each of the other groups knows that a prayer request has been made, and most of the communication is done by email, which tends to be faster, less invasive, and more reliable than the phone prayer chain.

My husband and I recently experienced a whole new twist on the good old-fashioned prayer chain. A couple of weeks ago my middle child came down with what appeared to be a pesky but tenacious virus. It turned out to be parvo-virus, a garden variety flu-type bug that strikes just about everyone on the planet during childhood.

Parvo-virus is normally little more than a nuisance. What differentiates it from other flu-like viruses is that it attacks the bone marrow and temporarily halts the production of red blood cells.

Human beings normally make a surplus of red blood cells for just such times as these. However, my two sons happen to have hereditary spherocytosis, an inherited blood disorder which inhibits the proper production of red blood cells. The cells that are produced are the wrong shape (spherical instead of round) and subject to attack by the spleen, which thinks they are foreign substances and therefore wipes out many of them. So parvo-virus can be deadly for my two boys.
My son got very ill very quickly, and ended up needing an emergency blood transfusion and hospital stay.

As I threw together an overnight bag so that I could accompany my son to the hospital, I quickly posted a request for prayer on Facebook. To my surprise, hundreds of people knew within hours of my son's admittance to the hospital and had already prayed for Joshua's recovery. And not just locals either.... people from all over Canada and the United States were praying for my son before he'd even drained the first of two bags of blood that he needed.

I couldn't help but marvel at this modern twist on the prayer chain. This is not intended to be an endorsement for Facebook (though I admit that I am slightly addicted to it.) I am also aware that Facebook has been misused, abused and employed as a tool to promote all sorts of insidious ideas and causes and has even served to destroy the careers and reputations of people (even Christians.) But Facebook, when used wisely, can also be a tremendous tool for the church in general, and for individual Christians, particularly in times of need as I so recently came to discover.

As it turned out, Joshua graciously shared his virus with his little brother Josiah (now why can't I get them to share toys?) and a week later we found ourselves in a re-run except with a different child. Once again we turned to Facebook for prayer, and were deeply rewarded to find so many friends praying for us and encouraging us, even people that we haven't seen in years. I am exceedingly grateful for this contemporary twist on the prayer chain.

These Walls Can Talk: Staying "Above Reproach" on Facebook

"If thine Wall offend thee, purge it. For it is better to have a blank Facebook Wall than to risk thine reputation or the reputation of one of thine Facebook friends."

That's my 2009 version of Matthew 18:9. Of course, the original version is still as relevant today as it was the day it was written. But I can't help but wonder if the apostle Matthew were alive today and were to rewrite his gospel if he would include a reference to Facebook.

It's hard for me to believe that one year ago I hadn't even heard of Facebook. Today I am an avid fan, and rarely go a day without checking to see what all of my friends are up too. It's an excellent tool for modern communication, sharing thoughts, and keeping in touch in a busy world. I've managed to reconnect with friends I haven't heard from in years. The longest-lost friend I've managed to find so far is one that I lost touch with twenty years ago, and rekindling that old friendship has been a source of joy for me.

But it didn't take me long to discover that Facebook, with all its perks and benefits, also has some potential pitfalls too. The first one that affected me personally was my near "Superwall" fiasco.

The "Superwall" application allows users on your friend list to post pictures, images and video clips directly to your profile page. Once you add Superwall to your profile, you also see in your daily feed all of the things that people on your friend list are posting on other people's Superwalls, or that your friends are receiving from THEIR friends.

It was in this inadvertent manner that I received a disturbing and arguably X-rated picture, one that had been posted by someone who was not even on my friend list, to another person who was. As my then 10-year old daughter stood looking at the computer screen over my shoulder, I innocently opened up my home page only to have this disturbing image jump straight onto my screen.

It startled me so much that I actually cried out and threw my body over the screen to protect my daughter. Fortunately I managed to cover it before she fully absorbed the image. But it was one of my first encounters with the downside(s) of Facebook.

I removed the Superwall application from my profile that very day. But the incident caused me to explore other ways in which Facebook can be potentially damaging to Christians in general, and to professional ministers in particular.

My husband shared an unfortunate story he heard recently of a minister who was applying for a position in a church. She had all the right skills and qualifications, and seemed to be the perfect candidate for the church and the position.

As so many organizations and institutions do (such as college admissions boards, secular employers and more,) this church examined the candidate's Facebook profile. Though her own profile appeared to be "above reproach," her husband's profile indicated something less than savory, and it was this that cost her the perfect job.

There are hundreds of stories of Christians and ministers who have been caught in compromising positions, circumstances and situations due to the chance taking of a photograph. Professional and lay church leaders alike have been removed from positions of leadership and authority because someone, perhaps even someone the minsiter didn't know, took a questionable cell phone picture and posted it on Facebook.

Facebook can also be construed as the gossip chain of the new millenium. Christians carelessly post opinions (even seemingly innocuous ones), thoughts and even slander, forgetting that these words are seen by potentially hundreds or even thousands of people.

Even aspects of Facebook as innocent as one's profile "Wall" are potential hotbeds for trouble. It's a good thing our walls at home don't talk, but Facebook Walls do, so keeping their language clean and respectable requires attentiveness and discernment. They may even require the occassional "purging."

I know a number of Christians who have closed their Facebook accounts because of issues like these. While this may be a respectable choice, in some ways I can't help but feel that this is akin to throwing the baby out with the bathwater. There are so many advantages to being on Facebook (quick and easy communication with masses of people, keeping in touch with friends and family, even creating affinity within your church) that a strong case can be made for the merits of keeping an active Facebook profile, and even creating pages for your church, youth group, care group, etc.

But like any other aspect of our lives, we need to apply the principles of godliness to our Facebook activities. That may mean regularly scrutinizing our Walls, being careful about the applications that we add, and even being selective about our friend lists.

When it comes to the pastor or ministry leader, we have an even greater responsibility to watch our Facebook behavior, as outlined in I Timothy 3:2, which states in part: "The overseer [pastor, leader, shepherd, etc.] must be above reproach." Reproach is defined by Merriam Webster as "A cause or occasion of blame, discredit or disgrace." This is a serious charge, one which was not meant to be taken lightly by those who purport to minister over others. Few things could be worse than your "Walls" destroying your own ministry.