Facebook groups are a great way to connect with people that you don’t know. What’s the use of posting God-centered content on Facebook if only your Christian friends see it?
There’s an easy way to connect with people you don’t know. I’m not talking about annoying people by posting stuff to their timeline. I’m not even talking about posting on group pages that you might join (although this can also be effective). I am going to show you the best way to make friends and reach people on Facebook. Naturally. Organically.
Almost 2000 years ago a man named Paul began a conversation with the men of Athens. How did he start? He began by talking about something familiar to them -in this case an altar to the unknown God. Then he built upon this topic and transitioned it into declaring the Truth to them. (Acts 17)
Finding common ground with people is one of the building blocks of succesful Facebook evangelism.
Let me give you an example:
I have always loved aviation. When I was young boy, I spent all my money on remote controlled airplanes. I was always wrecking them, but that’s beside the point. When you love something you learn about it. Because I loved them, I studied them. I was subscribed to a radio control enthusiast magazine, and would spend my days sitting around dreaming of the latest and greatest technologies I had read about.
5 years down the road, I was old enough to get into more trouble. I found a used paraglider off eBay and bought it for 300 dollars. It even came with a free T-shirt! I spent a whole summer running off mountain tops, soaring over green fields, and crash landing onto unintended objects.
I eventually sold the paraglider and moved on to other things. I decided to monetize my aviation interests, and so built a website that sold homebuilt airplane and helicopter plans.
What’s the point of this story?
I have 3 different areas in my life with which I can relate to people. I can talk with someone about RC airplanes, I can find paragliding enthusiasts and relate to them, and I can discuss the finer points of building and maintaining a website with “geeks.”
If I was a betting man, I would bet $100 that you have similar experiences.
We can use our experiences to connect with people. Let me show you how I can take my past, and use it to reach out to people on Facebook.
If I open up Facebook, and type paragliding into the search bar, it brings me to a page like this:
Here you can see it gives related groups. The first one simply labeled Paragliding is a group with over 5,000 members. If I join this group, I can start interacting with members here. The goal is not to fill up the group page with links to “God-topics.” The goal is to be normal -interact with other members and friend them. I know something about paragliding, and can contribute to discussions. I saw that one of the members of this group is from Iran! (Iran has attempted to block Facebook)
What if I “friended” him?
The point is not to shove Jesus down his throat. By simply sharing “God-centered content” on my own Facebook page, he will see it (if I’m friends with him). Maybe something I shared would spark his curiosity and we could talk about it….
So what life experiences do you have? Use them to find common ground with strangers and start making a difference for eternity!
And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.
Daniel 12:3
