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February 2021 PAGES 68 ` 20/- Mission through Social Media Vol. 50 / No. 2 AIM Annual Subscription for India, Nepal & Bhutan Rs. 200/- (Other countries $ 20) A monthly publication of EFI Publication Trust Editorial Reflection on Farmers and Rural Rev. Vijayesh Lal .......................................4 Mission? Rev. Dr. JN Manokaran ............................31 Internet Evangelism: Why and How Rev. Dr. Duke Jeyaraj ................................7 The Holy Spirit: sent from heaven Rev. Richard Masih .................................36 Greatest Mission of All Ms. Stuti Farmer .....................................10 Ministry Through Social Media Mr. George Philip ....................................40 Mission in times of Twitter Dr. Shantanu Dutta .................................13 Barring Women Rev. Kuruvilla Chandy ..............................42 Preaching That Transforms Rev. Dr. David Mende ..............................16 Persecution of Christians in the curfew of Covid - A report on 2020 In the Name Rev. Vijayesh Lal .............................49 Rev. Kuruvilla Chandy ..............................19 To God be the glory A brief report on EFI in 2020 Mission through Social Media Rev. Vijayesh Lal .............................54 Mr. Chacko Thomas .................................24 Prayer ..............................................................63 ADVERTISEMENT RATE Editorial Committee Centre Spread (Color) : Rs. 7000/- Rev. Vijayesh Lal : Hon. Editor-in-Chief Back Cover (Color) : Rs. 5000/- Front Inside (Color) : Rs. 4000/- Mrs. Sara Chonghoikim : Associate Editor Back Inside Page (Color): Rs. 4000/- Dr. John Dayal : Editorial Consultant Ordinary Page (B&W) : Rs. 2000/- Mr. Manish Walter : Design Consultant Half Page (B&W) : Rs. 1200/- Mr. Hansraj Jain : Nagpur One third Page (B&W) : Rs. 900/- Quarter Page (B&W) : Rs. 500/- Mrs. Sonia Daniel : New Delhi For subscription query call us: 011-26431133; Tele/Fax: 011-26285350, E-mail: [email protected], website: www.efionline.org THE TREASURER, EFI PUBLICATION TRUST, 805/92, Deepali, Nehru Place, New Delhi - 110019. Please Note: No article in AIM should be reproduced /translated without Editor’s written permission. Editor’s Note: Each Author is responsible for the point of view presented, which does not necessarily represent the view of Evangelical Fellowship of India. 3◄FEBRUARY 2021/AIM Editorial Rev. Vijayesh Lal God's creatures long to be with their the evil potential to rouse them to own kind, and not just as family targeted hate, violence, and also, if units, but often as communities that less often, to an individual or remain within sight and hearing, and collective death wish. often within touch. Human beings articulate this best. The connect The pandemic, and the physical facilitates sharing and thus isolation and distancing it imposed, contributes to the enrichment of their has brought it home with an lives. unnerving chill. The written word, as poetry, drama Statisticians tell us that almost half and narrative, the proscenium stage of the world's population, 45% or 3.5 led to cinema, radio, television. billion people to be precise, i.e., are Social media is its third millennium today active on social media. Over evolution, born of the computer, and 90% of all Millennials, 76% of internet, and globalised riding the Generation X and nearly 50% of ether of the internet. The smart Baby Boomers use social media phone with its Wi-Fi and GPS is "the spending an average of 3 hours per future come today". day on it. The power of social media is being used to harness the markets, But technology is just the carrier, the to tap customers, to build brand coach or bus that brought you to the loyalties, to influence, to advocate theatre or the cinema. Content, now and to transform society. as it was then, is king. It can move man, woman or an entire social So, what is social media? Wikipedia group and nation, to good, and it has defines social media as, “interactive 4◄FEBRUARY 2021/AIM digitally-mediated technologies that disinformation, which in common f a c i l i t a t e t h e c r e a t i o n o r parlance is referred to as Fake News. sharing/exchange of information, According to a 2019 study published ideas, career interests, and other in Science by MIT Sloan professor forms of expression via virtual Sinan Aral and Deb Roy and Soroush communities and networks.” It is Vosoughi of the MIT Media Lab, internet based and fed largely by user “False rumours spread faster and generated content that is produced wider than true information.” The and made available through websites researchers found that falsehoods or apps designed and maintained by are 70% more likely to be retweeted social media organizations. on Twitter than the truth and reach their first 1,500 people six times In its infancy in 2005, (the first faster. This effect was more noticeable social media site “Six pronounced with political news than Degrees”, was created in 1997), only other categories. about 5 percent of users in the United States were involved in social media. People, apparently, spread fake In 2019, that number grew to about news faster because they “are drawn 70 percent. to information that is novel and unusual, as false news often is.” Today our teens live on social media. They also found that people who According to the Pew Research share fake news are more likely Center: 97 percent of 13- to 17-year- distracted or lazy, rather than biased. olds use at least one of seven major But add ‘Bots’ to the equation and online platforms for about 9 hours you have an almost indefatigable every day. Facebook is by far the machine for spreading rumours and largest social media platform with false news. over 2.32 billion active monthly users. A recent example from our own country, India, was the rage Social media brings with it a sense of following the widespread news on connectedness whether it be to a real social media about the protesting or an online community and is an Indian farmers allegedly putting up a effective communication and "Khalistani" flag and displacing the marketing tool that is increasingly National Tricolour atop the iconic being used by corporations, Red Fort even though visuals clearly e n t r e p r e n e u r s , n o n - p r o f i t showed that the national flag was not organizations, advocacy groups, touched. Such is the power of social political parties, and governments. media. The downside is worrisome. In 2018, Mr. Amit Shah, the Home Social media is susceptible to Minister of India and then the 5◄FEBRUARY 2021/AIM President of the Bharatiya Janata susceptible to a kind of Christian Party, had told a group of social ‘slacktivism’ where we have media volunteers that they had the replaced Kingdom living with power to make any message go viral, proper looking and sounding posts whether real or fake. “We are on social media? capable of delivering any message we want to the public, whether sweet There are Churches and Christian or sour, true or fake. We can do this missions that are using social media work only because we have 32 lakh effectively as much as there are people in our WhatsApp groups. others who are resisting it. But we That is how we were able to make ignore it at our own peril. The this viral.” Mr. Shah had claimed. Generation Z, now so named, breathes social media for its The impact of social media on spiritual, emotional, mental and politics cannot be overstated. It has physical needs. They seek a been proved time and time again, community of faith that can ride the from the election of Barack Obama digital wave with them; a to Narendra Modi and Donald community that is participative and Trump, social media has played an open. Social Media, they are sure, important role in electoral politics. opens the door to the world that is online and is searching for the Its impact on society has been answers to the questions that haunt tangible -whether it be commerce, all humankind. jobs, family, community or religion. But it has also led to the The question is, can the Church manipulation of society. engage on social media without appearing too smug or self- Social media's most debilitating righteous, without appearing too produce is a rise of ‘slacktivism’ preachy, without coming across as where social sharing has limited partisan or being caught up in the people only into sharing their ‘outrage wave’? Can the Church opinions and concern through social open its digital doors wide so that media without actual and active people can come in freely and can engagement with the issues. the Church go all out so that people could be met at the point of their But what about Church and need? Can the Church find a way to Christian Mission? Are we able to be the digital community of faith that use Social Media to bring people to a lives and reaches out online in love saving knowledge of Jesus Christ? and compassion to serve and to Are we able to use Social Media to glorify Christ? Tell us. not only communicate the Gospel but also Kingdom values? Are we Rev. Vijayesh Lal 6◄FEBRUARY 2021/AIM INTERNET EVANGELISM: WHY AND HOW Rev. Dr. Duke Jeyaraj Over 50% of the world is now people who cannot tell their right online, reported a reputed magazine, hand from their left—and also many The Economist, in 2019 itself. animals?" (Jonah 4:11 NIV). Those Atleast 726 million people came are the words of the Father God. The online in the years 2017 through huge numbers of people in the city of 2019 with 'much of the rise coming Nineveh who did not know left hand from poorer places, notably Africa from right hand concerned God. and India' (the same report said).