The Speed of the Gospel

Mike Monson shares some amazing facts in his article The Speed of Social Media. Here are just some of the highlights:

Every second…
2,200 tweets are posted, 580 users update their Facebook status, 24 minutes of video is uploaded to YouTube, $20 is spent on virtual goods in Social Gaming

If you printed each of these Tweets in 12 point Helvetica font and laid them end to end, the resulting stream of text would travel at 1,200 mph

Graph of top speeds:
Usain Bolt – 29.2 mph
Cheetah – 70 mph
Bugatti Veyron – 254 mph
Facebook Updates – 360 mph
Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk “Stealth Fighter” – 600mph
Tweets – 1,200 mph

If you saw every update posted, you would have to read…
3.7 million words per minute on Twitter, 1 million words per minute on Facebook

The reach of social networks is spreading faster than any infectious disease in the history of mankind:
The Black Death killed 25 million people in 5 years, from 1347 to 1352. From 2005-2010, Facebook gained over 500 million users, more than the entire world population at the time of the Black Death.

Stop and compare for a minute. How long have you known the truth of the gospel? How fast is the message of the gospel getting out from your life? Greg Laurie claims that statistics say that only 1 in 20 professing Christians have ever shared the gospel. Did you catch that underlined word EVER?

I suspect this is not a statistic that would account for Christians worldwide and I also suspect that we as Americans, once known as a missionary nation, are the primary field from which this statistic derives.

Nathan Crietz rightly points out what Jesus has to say about this. Therefore, everyone who will acknowledge Me before men, I will also acknowledge him before My Father in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father in heaven. (Matthew 10:32-33)

Sobering words!

In New Testament days there was no social networking and yet, the speed with which the gospel went out, was amazing. There was one primary method of transmission. The gospel was carried about by the legs of individual believers and delivered by their very own voices. It was not left to David Jeremiah’s radio voice or the pastor’s sermon on Sunday. From the legs and voices of those early believers the message of the gospel moved around the world in a rapid pace.

Last week Mike Davis taught us our TCBC core value: Diligent Heralding of God’s Message. How committed are we to use social media to share not only what our children are doing, what we ate for lunch and where we have checked into, but the most important news of the gospel?

And much…much… much… more importantly, how committed are we to use the old fashioned means of using our legs to carry the message and our tongues to herald the truth, in season and out of season (II Timothy 4:2), face to face, with our co-workers, neighbors and friends?

It is my belief that if God wants the message of the gospel to get out (and He does!!), He will provide us opportunities regularly to speak for Him. Ask the Lord to give you two opportunities this week to share the gospel. When you get these opportunities, be bold, accurate and clear about God’s message. And perhaps you can share with the rest of us in the comment line below of the opportunity God provided you.

O Zion, Haste Mary A. Thompson, 1834-1923

1. O Zion, haste, thy mission high fulfilling, to tell to all the world that God is light,that He who made all nations is not willing one soul should perish, lost in shades of night.

Refrain:

  Publish glad tidings, tidings of peace; tidings of Jesus, redemption and release.

2. Behold how many thousands still are lying bound in the darksome prisonhouse of sin,with none to tell them of the Savior's dying, or of the life He died for them to win.

  (Refrain)

3. Proclaim to every people, tongue, and nation that God, in whom they live and move,is love; tell how He stooped to save his lost creation,and died on earth that we might live above.

  (Refrain)

4. Give of thine own to bear the message glorious;give of thy wealth to speed them on their way; pour out thy soul for them in prayer victorious; O Zion, haste to bring the brighter day.

  (Refrain)