We would love to hear from you! Send us a text message.
Ever found yourself mindlessly scrolling through your social media feed and wondering how it's shaping your world view? Our latest episode brings Chrissy Sanders into the mix, a social marketing dynamo with a ministry heart, to unpack the complexities of digital discipleship. Chrissy's insights illuminate the power of narrative in bridging divides and the intentional steps we can take to ensure that our digital footprint echoes our deepest values.
As we dissect the saying "out of the overflow of the heart the fingers tweet," we confront the cultural push towards self-righteousness and the nuanced dance between cherishing tradition and embracing change. The conversation takes a turn to digital habits and their ripple effects on children. We offer up strategies for fostering a healthy online presence and raising young ones in a world where screens often compete for their attention.
Special thanks to our sponsors:
Nissan, St. Dominic's Hospital, Atmos Energy, Regions Foundation, Brown Missionary Baptist Church, Christian Life Church, Ms. Doris Powell, Mr. Robert Ward, and Ms. Ann Winters
We would love to hear from you! Send us a text message.
Ever found yourself mindlessly scrolling through your social media feed and wondering how it's shaping your world view? Our latest episode brings Chrissy Sanders into the mix, a social marketing dynamo with a ministry heart, to unpack the complexities of digital discipleship. Chrissy's insights illuminate the power of narrative in bridging divides and the intentional steps we can take to ensure that our digital footprint echoes our deepest values.
As we dissect the saying "out of the overflow of the heart the fingers tweet," we confront the cultural push towards self-righteousness and the nuanced dance between cherishing tradition and embracing change. The conversation takes a turn to digital habits and their ripple effects on children. We offer up strategies for fostering a healthy online presence and raising young ones in a world where screens often compete for their attention.
Special thanks to our sponsors:
Nissan, St. Dominic's Hospital, Atmos Energy, Regions Foundation, Brown Missionary Baptist Church, Christian Life Church, Ms. Doris Powell, Mr. Robert Ward, and Ms. Ann Winters
This is Living Reconciled, a podcast dedicated to giving our communities practical evidence of the gospel message by helping Christians learn how to live in the reconciliation that Jesus has already secured for us by living with grace across racial lines. Thanks so much for joining us on this episode of Living Reconciled, episode 45. What do you think of Life's? We have a really good guest with us.
Speaker 2:Special guest, special guest with us Very special.
Speaker 1:We'll talk to her in just a second, but before we do, we want to give a quick shout out to some of our sponsors Nissan, thank you, st Dominic's Thank you, atmiss Energy Ranges Foundation, brown Missionary Baptist Church, christian Life Church, Ms Doris Powell, mr Robert Ward and Ms Ann Winters. Thank you all so much for everything that you do. It's because of what you do that Mission Mississippi is able to do what we do, and today what we are doing, gentlemen, is we are talking about social media. We're talking about the intersection of social media and the life of faith and the intersection of social media and reconciliation, and we have a very, very smart guest to talk to us about those things, absolutely.
Speaker 2:I can't wait to hear Ms Chrissy Sanders.
Speaker 1:Yeah, chrissy is a social marketing extraordinaire expert. She works for um get folks like Rich Perspectives here in Jackson, mississippi, and she is a long time, long time friend of Mission Mississippi. She's also a wife and a mother and she has a bundle of joy on the way.
Speaker 2:A third Congratulations, congratulations. A third bundle of joy on the way.
Speaker 1:And so, and so we're incredibly excited to talk to Chrissy Sanders. Chrissy, how you doing, ma'am?
Speaker 4:I'm doing great. Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1:It is so good to have you, so good to have you. Why don't we start by just asking you to talk to us a little bit about your own journey of faith and your story, and how did you get to where you are today?
Speaker 4:Well, it's funny when, um whenever I'm asked to give my testimony, um, I always think which one?
Speaker 2:because you know, that's true. That was a first for us, right, right.
Speaker 1:Digging a left, my left pocket or my right pocket? Which one am I pulling out? Which one?
Speaker 4:because God is always doing a new thing.
Speaker 3:You know, Like you know yeah.
Speaker 4:And so it's very hard um for me to you know, I guess it depends on where I am. You know what I'll share you know situations and who I'm talking to, but the reader's digest version is that um?
Speaker 3:I?
Speaker 4:had. I was raised by parents who love the Lord and raised me in the nurture and admonition of him, and so, um, I came to know Christ when I was around seven years old, was baptized. Of course, when you get saved, that young you, you get to be a teenager and then you go to camp and then you, you know, you start to question okay, well, did I know what I was doing back then? Was that real? And so I had to struggle and I had to wrestle, uh, like so many uh youth do. Um, I, I rededicated my life in 2004 because, if I wasn't sure, I wanted to get sure. Um, I went to uh Mission Fuge in Nashville, over at Belmont.
Speaker 2:University.
Speaker 4:Yeah, Uh, great place that really changed my life and opened up my eyes to what it means to be a missionary, because up until that time I thought being a missionary took a plane but it doesn't.
Speaker 2:It's true.
Speaker 4:So that that really kind of re centered me and and allowed me to focus on wherever my feet are. That's my mission field.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So um, I went to Mississippi college and majored in theater Um my parents love that Austin likes, like every, every, yeah.
Speaker 1:Acted, acted. A few plays at MC too, man, so I've.
Speaker 3:I've I've been in your stomping grounds.
Speaker 1:Yeah, fellow, graduate of Mississippi college shouting out there Awesome.
Speaker 2:I love Mississippi college. I mean I got great investment and I got a daughter's got two or three degrees from it.
Speaker 4:Oh, that's good. That's good All parents love to hear. I'm going to major in theater. Oh, I know it.
Speaker 3:I know it so. Or English literature, oh my.
Speaker 1:God yeah Right, no money so we're going to have to take care of this girl for the rest of our life, but here's the thing.
Speaker 3:You are proof that it can happen. It can happen well, and it can happen productive, absolutely.
Speaker 4:Well, that's all.
Speaker 4:Credit goes to Jesus for that because I remember, when I transferred into Mississippi college, I didn't. I didn't know what my passion was except for acting, and so I prayed about it and I was like Lord I know this seems silly, I know that there's a ton of options out here for me, but I don't know if I, if I, fit into that. And so I said, lord, if it is not your will, please turn me around, please show me something different, because I don't know. I'm just going into what I do know. And he was very faithful, because I graduated with this degree in theater. I taught theater in high school, theater for three years, and every job that I've had I've been able to be in front of people and make presentations and, you know, speak and communicate well. So he has been able to use that in ways that I never thought that he would.
Speaker 4:And even today, at my agency, you know, I'm still getting to dabble in acting and you know, commercials and voice acting and things like that. So you know, I don't, I don't regret majoring in theater.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I mean, one of the things, of course, that we're going to talk about is this idea that you, you spend, you spend a lot of time in the social media space, right, and, and, of course, video editing and media in general. Right, you spend a lot of time in just media in general, and so one of the things that's been on our hearts and our minds is processing what is social media doing to us? It's, it's an, it's an amoral tool, right, it's an. It's, it's not. It doesn't have a. It's not, you know, an evil or righteous tool is just a tool, right, but a. But it's doing something to us in terms of the way that we utilize it, the way that we Leverage it. Talk to us a little bit from your vantage point as a social media expert Extraordinaire. What do you see it doing right now?
Speaker 4:Well, just as far as marketing goes, in general, I have questioned Whether this was the right thing for a Christian to be in, and I mean, we just got to be honest about that. I listened to a John Piper sermon. It wasn't. It wasn't a sermon, it was one of those ask Pastor John Episodes that he does, where you send in questions and he kind of helps you Form a biblical worldview on the topic, sure, and so the question was should Christians be in marketing? And one of the points that he made was that you know, is it true? You know the things that you're marketing. You have to ask yourself Is that true? Do I believe these things, or am I just making this stuff up for fluff? Another reason that I do believe that Christians need to be in the marketing space is Because Satan is really good at marketing right and that's what we, and so Social media has changed our whole world.
Speaker 4:You know, it's not just something that's here in America, it's something that's global and it is how people are communicating, and I do think that it is rewiring our brains To, I think, be more Polarized. You know, because you see a name with a comment and you automatically go to Judgment of that person. Yes when that may not be who they are in real life.
Speaker 1:Yes, and I think that it would be you see, you see a share.
Speaker 4:That's right.
Speaker 1:You can just see that person share an article or like or video. Or like somebody else's article, I mean, how many times video?
Speaker 3:we heard someone become pilloried simply for liking a tweet absolutely. Or, I guess, an X. I don't know what to call them now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I mean yeah, but you can. Your mind can wonder it automatically Judges based on one click.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, but in the in it our job as Christians to. I don't know, I don't want to wear police, but some kind of a brain and integrity and a standard to that medium, so that Absolutely no, how do you know that?
Speaker 4:And there is, there is something to that. There is a way. That is our job.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but are we doing it? Yes, that's the question. Right, obviously we're not, are we?
Speaker 2:joining in with the yeah are we sending out from the crowd? You know the great commission says going to all the world. Wouldn't that include media marketing? Yes, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that's a good point and it, but but to your point, chrissy, the devil is awfully good at it isn't he?
Speaker 4:you know the temptation the temptation of the Christ you know, hey, take a peek at all of this, you know.
Speaker 1:And you can. You can have all of this if, if you bow down and worship. I mean there's, there's a, there's a presentation that he's always making, whether it be in Genesis 3, whether it be in Matthew 4, right, there's, there's this ongoing presentation that he's making, and even the Bible says he presents himself as an angel of light. And so there there is a, there's an appeal that he always is positioning and posturing himself To, to bring catch you catch your breath, man?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, are you promoting the devil? Yeah, I'm saying those what he's doing, yeah.
Speaker 3:I mean, but I also think you know when the Holy Spirit makes a presentation. I mean just think think acts to amen. I mean, that was, that was a much bigger.
Speaker 1:Amen, and I think the reason why I brought all of that to the surface is Because of what I wanted to. What I want to draw out of that is the level of intentionality, intentionality that we as Christians, and we as must have not only intentionality but intensity.
Speaker 2:Intentionality because he is very Absoluted intentionality. So you know, when we look at that, we think man. But you know, it's always a God acts and and Satan counteracts from the very beginning, is at counteract, at counteract, at counteract. And then Jesus had come to cut that food just out. So we have victory once and for all in that arena.
Speaker 1:Yeah, talk to us a little bit. Continue on in terms of the ways that you see it Influencing, shaping the conversations. You talked about Polarization. What are some other ways that you see social media kind of impacting us as a culture, us as a people of faith? How's it impacting us?
Speaker 4:well, I think that, like I said earlier, satan's good at marketing and I think that what he's done with our generation has marketed sin as acceptance and love and intolerance, and I think there's a. Those are good words.
Speaker 2:I think you need to repeat that that's so heavy.
Speaker 4:but the thing is, we don't need it, we need to fight that as a church.
Speaker 3:God hates sin.
Speaker 4:He is a God of love but, he's also a God of righteousness and. And so you can't love Half God, you have to love God. God cannot be part of your life. He has to be your whole life, and so he doesn't exist for us. We exist for him.
Speaker 4:Yeah and so that truth has been warped and twisted by the enemy, and I think that's why we Christians, I mean of course, go with your convictions. If you, if you feel like you are called out of that space to to separate yourself, do that. But for me, like, this is where I am in my life, and God has given me, I guess, a talent for Managing social media, and there have been a lot of things that I've had to learn because I was, when I was younger, the type of Christian who I was gonna be. So winsome, you guys.
Speaker 4:So, I was gonna be so winsome. I was going to be the one who is accepting of this, that and the other.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:I was gonna be the one to play to both sides and try to bring reconciliation Through. It wasn't Completely affirming sin, but it was close.
Speaker 3:And.
Speaker 4:I think I hurt the cause of my brothers and sisters in Christ when I called them out for speaking the truth.
Speaker 4:And I never want to be, that again Like God convicted me of that, and so I think, if you are a Christian and you are gonna be on social media, then you need introspection first and you need to ask yourself Is what I'm saying lined up with the gospel Philippians, chapter 4. Is it true? Okay, it may be true, but is it noble? A lot of times it's not. Is it right? Is it pure? Is it lovely? Is it admirable and so?
Speaker 3:I love that. I was In that.
Speaker 4:I was swimming in that, me and my righteous indignation. Yeah, yeah well.
Speaker 3:I mean to your credit though, and because I Think part of it was you saw some things, because this, this, every generation goes through this, sure, where they see some things that Absolutely needs to change and they want to see things change and be better for the next generation and Sometimes, especially when they're young, especially when they're in our teens, 20s and up into our 30s, and probably when our four in our 40s, begin to Kind of more sharply see the changes that need to be making, we're a little bit more, we're a bit calmer about it, but yet we're more laser focused. But the point is, I think sometimes we have the tendency to throw the baby out with a bath bath water.
Speaker 3:When we do honestly see things that need to change, such as what you saw and then and then, because I think that's important but at the same time, we can at times conflated, to be so integrated with, with the practices that are going on. That that's we. We allow ourselves to, to for to forget Peace and grace and mercy in our conversations at times, and I mean I've been, I've been that.
Speaker 1:I think we all. I think we all have, we all have. Chrissy, you said something incredibly, incredibly important just a moment ago, where you talked about this idea of the vantage point by which we enter into social media, and I can't remember how you act I'm articulated if you know the way you articulated it but what I heard was there's a tendency for us, when we enter into this space, to center ourselves, and you and you talked about God really being the center and and and everything is orbiting around him. But social media, for whatever reason, has a real tendency to draw us into this posture where we feel like we're the center and so we, and so everybody has a microphone, everybody needs to speak up, everybody needs to, everybody needs to talk right and everybody needs to watch me. Click the like or click the love or whatever. Hey, why isn't anybody clicking my likes? You know, I just shared this great picture why?
Speaker 1:why isn't anybody clicking love? You know, there's a tendency for us to move towards the center, and just Just that subtle movement alone is creating Difficulty for our soul. Would you, would you say? Would you say that to be the case?
Speaker 4:I would absolutely agree with that. I did want to share, I think, one of the most convicting Things that I have read as far as the status or a post goes and I don't remember who posted it, but it was out of the overflow of the heart the fingers tweet.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, yes, and we don't think about it like that because, we see social media and we think, oh this is all fun and games.
Speaker 4:This is artificial, but the truth is. If you look at our young people, you know we were the. I was the generation where Facebook came out, when I was in high school you know, but the younger people, my son, his generation is going to be entrenched in it.
Speaker 1:Yes, oh, yeah and they don't think like that.
Speaker 4:You've got to think in context out of the overflow of the heart, the fingers tweet. It is so important to be careful.
Speaker 3:And with all of these tools. You know Facebook, you know for us it's calculators as well, as I think it's now also for chat, gpt. It's just like how do you learn to use all of these tools?
Speaker 3:on a way that does not allow you to fully live into the. You know the skills that you're supposed to be learning at such a young age as well. I'm thinking relationship building skills. In terms of overuse of calculators, this is a conversation I just had with my ninth grade daughter. I would not allow her to use calculators on her assignments until just two or three days ago, because she's proven to me that she can do everything a calculator can do on paper. And now that she's proven to me that she can do that, I allowed her to use it for the things that to allow her to just move forward and quicker, in that she's at that proficient level, and I think that relationship building for social media is also pretty similar.
Speaker 3:It's a tool that can be used for good, productive relationship building. But I'm just thinking especially your son's age probably similar to my children's age is that they then are? You know, are they learning to relate with one another in the proper way? Are they building the skills that are proper for their age, or is social media doing so? Through so much of the lens of social media or the tool of social media, are they really then able to build the type of relationships that they need to?
Speaker 2:build Hasn't been anyway, even though Facebook is a recent phenomenon, but before that was telephone, other issues that, as you talked about, austin, of having the how do I say it the responsibility Of making sure you take care of things the proper way and use it for the right reasons, and so forth, and so, for me, the atypical aspect that Brian talked about with social media, it's really not social media, it's really the fingers that tweet from somewhere other than their heart is what the problems are, and what happens for me in terms of looking at social media is that that stuff I can say if I had a mind to that, I otherwise wouldn't say.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah yeah yeah, it's like my generation say well, you can throw the brick and hide your hand with Facebook. Really easy, you can go in, talk in, talk needle in talk, needle In talk, needle in talk needle.
Speaker 2:So you can do that in some kind of way, think that you have no responsibility or accountability in this. But you do, Because ultimately, God is looking at this and you're accountable to God, not to the person that you're tweeting about or making a statement toward whatever else. And so it's the same way with gossip. It's the same way with the writing, it's the same. All of those things like guns and knives and money and all of those things, All of those things is used for human production or consumption or whatever how you wanna put that. And so social media has a great place. God has blessed us with great technology, Great ways of communicating globally, as Chris just talked about. We now have take responsibility and accountability of how we're gonna use that.
Speaker 1:Well, not just accountability and responsibility, which are both important, but we also have to have the kind of awareness of what does this tool introduce to us. You know for you guys know I mean Nettie, and Austin knows that I'm a huge fan of a gentleman by the name of Andy Crouch, and Andy's a Christian philosopher and thinker One of the things that he talks about all the time is this innovation bargain, that technology, every new technology brings about trade-offs, and if we don't evaluate the trade-offs rightly, then we will end up succumbing to the negative that the technology brings. So, for example he talked about back in the day there was a trade-off, you know, with writing just to be able to write yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 1:That there was a trade-off. And he starts it by saying now you can transmit information across space and time. All right, that's a great thing. So you'll no longer have to orally transmit and remember all the all knowledge, because now you can transmit on paper, and so I don't have to remember everything. But the trade-off you'll no longer be able to orally transmit and remember hardly anything. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So now you'll have to write things down to remember them, and so that's the trade-off. Oh great, we got a new tool we can write. We don't have to remember everything. Well, guess what, now that I can write, oh, I can't remember as much as I used to because I'm writing everything down. Hey, guess what? I got this great cell phone. Now I don't have to remember anybody's cell phone number, I can just put it in the ear and lock it in my phone book. Well, guess what? When's the last time you thought about a number besides your significant other that you can recall and call back on demand?
Speaker 1:Whereas you used to be able to do that all the time, and so we don't think about the bargains and the trade-offs and that whole writing.
Speaker 3:you know writing technology, I mean, it's been here for what?
Speaker 4:2000 years plus.
Speaker 3:Absolutely For that. So that's something we as a species has been dealing with. We developed the technology to communicate on paper and, yeah, that's maybe affected our capacity to be able to be able to remember things and every iteration of technology you have that kind of trade-off, but if you don't think about it?
Speaker 1:and so what do we do with social media? Now that we have social media, I can talk to anybody I want to I can video, I don't have to worry about if they're in the room, or I can talk to thousands of people at the same time. Well, guess what? So I no longer have to be in the same room talking to a person in order to have a relationship, which means now I will no longer be able to be in the room and actually have a relationship, because I'm too consumed talking to a thousand people.
Speaker 1:So how many picnics or not picnics, but Christmas dinners and fourth of Julys have you had where 50% of the people in the room are locked into their phones now talking to people thousands of miles away Rather than talking to the very people that are in the room? Yeah, living reconciled is a work of Mission Mississippi, but it is not our only work. From days of dialogue and prayer meetings to consultation for schools, businesses and churches, mission Mississippi is eager to help you, your team, your church and your community live reconciled Every month. Join us for our weekly prayer breakfasts on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6.45 am, our bi-weekly statewide connection meetings on Fridays at 10 am and a focused time of prayer on the third Thursday of the month at 7 am. To get details on any of our upcoming events or to learn how you can invite us to your church, business or school, visit our website at missionmississippiorg and click on the events button or call us at 601-353-6477. That's the bargain that we did not calculate.
Speaker 3:That's right. It reminds me of one of the early. He was a black Methodist preachers this is probably around turn of late 1790s, early 1800s and he was illiterate. But he learned to preach by hanging out with a bunch of the white preachers, so he would just hear them preach and he would hear them read the Bible. He never actually was able to read the Bible himself, but because he didn't have the, I'm gonna call it a detriment of having to write things down in order to remember it, because that's kind of how we're putting things out right now.
Speaker 3:Without that detriment, he was able to internalize every sermon he was able to recall having never actually read the Bible and hearing it, and they said that he was one of the most effective preachers in the early Methodist church. I forgot his name. I'll remember it. I'll find it out later, maybe next week I'll throw it out, but yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:His recall was sharpened.
Speaker 3:Yeah, his recall was sharpened. He had all the intelligences, and he just didn't have the type of upbringing that he needed in order to learn how to read and write, but that didn't stop him from having all the intelligence that he needed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Chrissy, you say you were almost swallowed up in this.
Speaker 4:That's right.
Speaker 1:Give me some ways in which you started to balance that social media diet in a healthy way.
Speaker 4:Well, all credit goes to God for that, because I had, you know, working on social media too. It was very difficult for me to even focus, because when I became a social media manager years ago, I had to learn how to do it, and so I was not on Facebook at that time. I had deactivated my Facebook because I was sick of all the drama and I didn't wanna expose myself to that. But you can't be a Facebook manager if you can't log in yourself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, Pretty tough right.
Speaker 4:Yeah so I had to deal with that. And so then, when I was checking these brand pages and making these plans and scheduling things and creating ads and all of this, it was very distracting because I would log into my personal Facebook page and have to see it all again and I didn't like that, but it was happening. And there's one thing to be placing ads and people love me when I tell them that I am the reason that they see all these sponsored posts everywhere. You know, it makes me feel very purposeful, but I was just. I was done with all the noise. It was an election year and it was causing me the posts that I saw, people that I otherwise had good relationships with. It caused me to think of them differently.
Speaker 3:And.
Speaker 4:I hated that because I know those people and if. I saw those people, I would come up and give them a hug, and I don't want to, you know, and it's both sides of the-.
Speaker 1:Let a post define the person. That's right.
Speaker 4:And so it was really starting to affect me in my relationships, and so I had to just really figure out, okay, if I'm gonna be doing this, what is the right way to do this? And it became, instead of me having to have an opinion on every new new story that came out, be silent. Yes, if you were going to post something. I mean, if you look at my social media channels now, most of the time you will just see funny stuff that my children say, because I want it to something to be pleasant and good and true. Now, does that mean that we aren't allowed to speak out on gospel issues?
Speaker 4:Absolutely not, because I think that we are called to speak up and let other people know where we stand on things, but that kind of thing is not definitive for the persona that I want to present online, and so I think I just had to get to a place where I don't have to have an opinion on everything. Sometimes, silence is golden, you know, absolutely Proverbs.
Speaker 1:18 and 13 says if one gives an answer before she he hears it is his, her folly and shame. And I think what social media oftentimes does is it puts us in these environments where we there's no room to listen. That's part of the bargain right, that's part of the trade off right, because that social media is not necessarily conducive to long listening, is conducive to quick speaking, and so what ends up happening is that we end up sharing a lot of quick opinions, reading blurbs and taking from those blurbs all sorts of assumptions about the people and about where they stand and what they believe and what they value, and then shooting back quick blurbs, which are then you know which. You got to respond to those quick blurbs and now you just pot shot in each other rather than actually having a real conversation.
Speaker 4:And I think quick is the key word here. We don't wait for the dust to settle a lot of times before we speak, and I think that's what scripture kind of is alluding to when it talks about folly. But it's so cool that you pulled from Proverbs, because I've been reading Proverbs and one of the things that it says in Proverbs probably more than once is that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
Speaker 4:And so that's something that I, in just my life, I've been seeking lately, and the word says ask for wisdom.
Speaker 1:He wants to give us wisdom.
Speaker 4:And so we can't let's think, oh, this is social media, this is not real, I don't have to have wisdom here, right?
Speaker 1:Yes, you do Right. It's an extension of the heart, just like any other way, any other vehicle or any other tool that we have. Their extensions, how we wield them, are extensions and reflections of the heart.
Speaker 3:And I wonder, in this context, in this culture of social media and algorithms and everything and we're talking about wisdom versus folly and shame I wonder if we even have you know, even on a practical level, if we even operate on those categories anymore, like what has happened to shame.
Speaker 4:What has happened?
Speaker 3:to the concept of folly. I mean, you know, because now people understand folly not as a something that I do in my life, that I need to perfect myself on. I need to get better on I need to grow and need to mature. It's like no, no, folly and shame is now something other people do and I'm the I'm the person with with wisdom. I think it goes back to that kind of egocentric egocentrism. Yeah, yeah, egocentrism, Well, social media, social media.
Speaker 1:Yeah, social media got dropped in. It was a bum, it was a detonating bum for us because we were already moving more and more and more towards the ego yeah, centric, individualistic.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, absolutely Regardless of politics, regardless of ethics we become egocentric Absolutely. Even Christians have become egocentrists Absolutely.
Speaker 4:But Satan has done that.
Speaker 3:Exactly, exactly, amen he has marketed that.
Speaker 4:He has marketed that as something that oh self love. You know how many times have you seen that on t-shirts?
Speaker 3:Absolutely Right. Right, let's love yourself. Yeah, but it's taken something good to your point earlier and corrupting it Right, it's perverting it.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and absolutely yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, and it's taken something good to your neighbor as you love yourself.
Speaker 4:So yes, you are not supposed to self love, right, right. But this let's just cut all the toxic people out of my life. You know, I don't think that's biblical.
Speaker 3:You're going to have to tuck yourself. Tuck yourself, or you're going to have to get yourself out of your own life, if that's what you want Exactly. Because at the point when you're starting cutting people out of your life, you're probably the toxic one.
Speaker 1:Well, you guys are not. Well you guys. In my church this Sunday I was preaching on some of this.
Speaker 3:No, no, but I just think about you all the time.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's right, I was there, I was there, I was there in spirit and heart.
Speaker 3:That's right, that's right.
Speaker 4:Not to say that it's not appropriate to set boundaries, that you know, that's not what I'm saying. It's just we have got to seek wisdom, you know. Seek what God's word says and listen to the convictions of your heart.
Speaker 1:Well, Chrissy, what I told, what I seriously told our church this week, I'm serious, I did preach on this.
Speaker 1:Seriously, seriously. I believe you, but what I told the congregation this week is that there is a such thing as talk about toxic and toxic people and boundaries and things of that nature, but in the individualized culture that we exist in, our tolerance for toxic needs to be raised. We have low tolerance, right. What we call toxic is basically oftentimes people just being human and we say, oh, no, no, no, no, we, I got to get away from this toxic people or toxic person or this, and sometimes it's just people being human, sometimes, but but but what I'm saying is is that our, our tendency, our tolerance in an individual culture is to say okay, if you say something off, then it's time to cut you off.
Speaker 3:And remember social media has is is moving beyond the person to person.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:Our relationship as well.
Speaker 4:Yes.
Speaker 3:We're, we're now especially through algorithms, and this isn't Facebook, tiktok, instagram. I mean, it's just like there there is a, there is, you know, and I would say it's a serious detriment to mental health that you can go down rabbit holes on on any number of directions. Absolutely Any number of. You know politics, ethics, you know religious, even religious I mean anything.
Speaker 3:I mean you can take some things that are fairly innocuous, go down whatever your particular political or religious view is and in in there, and I can promise you there's a corner of your own view that is likely toxic.
Speaker 1:There's a cesspool waiting for you, exactly.
Speaker 3:And then it's done and it could be done. You, you're isolated by yourself. Become an acquainted with this barrage of information, at times through videos that are selectively done to slowly scaffold you to having worse and worse mental illness. But I'll tell you why, though you know?
Speaker 4:you were talking about how you know, if you start to write about one thing, you'll start to see things. I mean, another branch of what I do is Google. I work with. Google ads all the time and I think that a lot of people say, oh, google's listening to us. I was just talking about this brand of syrup, and then I see a you know, commercial for it on the internet or what? How?
Speaker 1:did Google know I want to miss his?
Speaker 3:butter. I was just thinking about it.
Speaker 4:How'd you?
Speaker 3:do it.
Speaker 4:If I, if I if I can, you know, calm your fears a little bit.
Speaker 3:One of the things that brought me out of that dark place and how I told you.
Speaker 4:You know, I kind of came to the realization that I did not have to have an opinion on anything. I didn't have to post about this, that and the other. Google takes what you give it. Okay.
Speaker 3:Facebook does too. So for example, I'm expecting so of course.
Speaker 4:I am Googling cribs and bouncers and, you know, brands of diapers or whatever. I'm doing it on Pinterest. I'm I'm Googling. I mean I'm searching nursery designs and things like that. And when you give your email address to a a login for an app, like. Pinterest, Google creates a comp, a composite for you.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 4:Okay, and it sends these things that it knows that you have shown interest in to various channels. So what?
Speaker 1:I'm saying is social media being one, being those channels?
Speaker 4:if you don't post it yes it's not going to show up. I have no interest in hardware. Okay, I'm not a you know, home improvement kind of girl All right. So you see ads for hammers.
Speaker 3:Yes, yeah, yeah Okay.
Speaker 4:But you do, you know, like, whatever it is that you were interested in, google knows it gives it to Facebook, gives it to Pinterest, gives it to whatever and it knows to send you those ads Exactly. So what I'm saying is be very careful about what you post and do not cry when you get ads targeted to you because you gave them the information that they needed to do it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. So that's almost the status quo of where we are in terms of our technology our social technology right now? Yes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but before Google, though it was. These, uh, podists used to call you on the telephone and, and, and even um. Give you these incentives of free stuff to be a, what they call it, a smart shopper or a. You know, you, you go, you evaluate what people are buying and so forth, and you've given your opinion. Uh, these panels that we used to call them, what do you call these panels where you get a bunch of people together and they be think tanks? What do you? You know? Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know what you're talking about.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah and so, uh, we have contributed to that focus groups focus, focus groups.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, we've we contributed to that.
Speaker 2:Now you can just do it over Google just do all that work for you Absolutely.
Speaker 3:You know, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. Don't ever forget from my perspective, don't ever forget that when God created everything from verse one to 25, he said everything was good. That's right, everything was good. That's including the technology that included Facebook that is social media, all of those things, and what happened is that the next chapter happened right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the foundation of good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, good things get in the fallen hands but also verse 27 and beyond you get to verse 34, and he says God looked at what he created and said it was very good, it was us Me. What he created was very good, but that was us. That was his signature thing. He said very good.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And John is, as the next chapter, where Satan put a plant of thought in his ear, he heart wherever, and from that we got the degradation of what we have today with that social media. All the thing we're talking about has been perverted for our benefit and not for God's benefit.
Speaker 2:And so I think social media is a great tool, mm. Hmm, in fact, I'm excited because Christmas is here today, because our first official platform for social media was created by her, and every month we had a scripture, a theme, the whole deal to use social media in the right way and how to be used to glorify God.
Speaker 1:Talk to me about how we can use it. Continue that thought and that he just dropped, and talk to me about this amoral tool. How can we use it for God's glory, amen.
Speaker 4:Be salt and light.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Be an encouragement to people. Post things that are encouraging and are uplifting to people. I would get so angry if somebody came up into my comments and disagreed with me and wanted to start stuff. No matter how right I thought I was and how wrong I thought they were. I just didn't want to get into that anymore. Yeah. Because, I was like this relationship is not worth that and I will never forget my preacher saying it was a 2020 election coming up and he I mean he doesn't really do politics.
Speaker 4:That's a whole bit, a whole lot. But it was the Sunday before and he said my dad and I have never voted the same way as long as I've been old enough to vote, but there is not an election that has been or will be. That is more important than my relationship with my dad.
Speaker 2:Amen.
Speaker 4:So, yes, we are going to disagree. It doesn't mean because we disagree that we hate each other.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and I think that one of Satan's marketing ploys you know, he's marketed. Non affirmation to hate.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 4:And I think that one of the important things that we as a church can do is talk about it. It doesn't need to be one of these taboo topics where we need to put it all on the table and say, look, social media is a tool that can be used for good. You know, I remember a time in my life when I was teaching high school. I had a friend that I'd met from infuge that I was talking about changed my life.
Speaker 4:We she lived in New York, she was a vocal coach, so we were in the theater world, you know. So we kept up with each other and she had a camp every summer that she put on for youth as a ministry, and she saw that I had all these students, you know, and she she tapped me on the shoulder, you know, through Facebook, and said would you're, would any of your students need to come to this theater camp, learn how to act, learn how to do a show but at the same time, hear the gospel and meet other young people that that want to seek him and the kids.
Speaker 4:She flew down from New York to Terry Mississippi, to my classroom and held auditions in my classroom and took, you know, maybe five or six of my students to. Michigan to this camp. This kid ended up purchasing a Bible at one of the the camp. You know gift shops or or souvenirs or whatever but that that was one of the things that wouldn't have happened had I not had social media as a tool to keep up with this person. So of course, you know God can use anything. He can take sin and use it.
Speaker 3:We've seen that. Yeah, yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, I'm reminded of as a kid, being inside cooped up in the house and every once in a while, my father and my mother would come in the bedroom. They would say, hey, you need to go outside and get some air, get some sunlight. I think I think one of the healthy, healthiest things we can do is the version of the, the tech, the the technology version of going outside and getting some air and getting some sunlight. And what I mean by that is, I think the healthier thing we can do sometimes is just put the phone down. Yeah, you know, put the phone down, put the social media down. You know, log off and go and talk to real people and go and engage real people. You know, I was talking to some of our, some of my good brothers last week at church and one of the things we were talking about is just how do we navigate through exhaustion? Like you know, a lot of a lot.
Speaker 1:A lot of the comments that were coming back were saying and sometimes I just don't even want to be around people and and one of the things I said is that that's.
Speaker 2:I can't imagine that man. I love being around.
Speaker 1:Well, one of the things I said I said is that I'm not going to dismiss that because I know as an introvert, that that sometimes that's my, that's my bit.
Speaker 1:But I also want to challenge you to evaluate where your social leaks are happening, and what I mean by that is that you have a certain capacity for interaction. Everybody does but if you are exhausting all of your capacity for social engagement, engaging people that are thousands of miles from you, clicking and looking at all of the views and all of the opinions and all of the thoughts of people on Instagram and Facebook, then by the time you finish doing that for three hours, you probably don't want to talk to anybody else.
Speaker 4:You look up and it's Thursday.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, you look up and it's Thursday, and no, I don't want to talk to anybody in the room with me, because I've been spending all my time talking to tens of thousands of people that I don't have any connection with, and so watch for those leaks in your social bandwidth, and social media is one of those leaks that we sometimes don't even pay attention to, and it spreads like a cancer. Yes, and one of the things that I mean.
Speaker 4:I'll tell one more story but, we a few years ago. My son was in preschool and or kindergarten, I can't really remember, but he was. He was around five, he was little, having behavior problems in school just all the time. I would pray, god, if you're listening, help, help us to not get on yellow or red today, because what would happen?
Speaker 4:is I'm working and I'm thinking about what he may or may not be doing at school and then if he has a bad day, then I have to come home and do the discipline stuff and you know, it just kind of dampers the rest of your night. You know, you get a few hours with these children and you would like them to be pleasant.
Speaker 2:So I'm praying you would think so anyway.
Speaker 4:So I am praying God, please just help, right, and I was so convicted in that moment that if children are a reflection of us, what are you doing? It's not about what he's doing. What are you doing in the house at night, in the time that you have with him, that could be causing him? It may not be. It may be not teaching him like I should. It was spending too much time on my phone, right, so I started to like wean myself off that when I was at home and I saw a huge difference in a very short amount of time.
Speaker 1:Incredible. So we you know incredible.
Speaker 3:We have three people in this room who've raised children in the digital era. Now you've raised grandchildren in the digital area, right? So my whole thinking Sorry, Sorry.
Speaker 2:I just love it when he distinctively said three people Right.
Speaker 4:Who are you on?
Speaker 2:Eliminating.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I mean so like how do we raise children in this environment? You know, I mean for me, I mean my choice is we just do a very strict and prohibition. Yeah, they have iPads, but they're, they're, they're heavily, heavily restricted on a lot of limitations on time and on site.
Speaker 1:They don't get Safari.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they don't have any social media.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:They, they have you know, they have you know, like Netflix.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And they have a cellist which is our, the homeschool program that they use. Yeah, but but in, you know, in a couple of other things as they're showing me, like roadblocks, as they're showing me that they can handle that type of thing, Like what are, what are you all doing for your kids?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know time time is a big thing for me, and so even my 13 year old, he has a, he has a cell phone. I think it has maybe an hour on it, you know, during the week, and so each day is, yeah, well, an hour a day. Okay, so he has one hour a day, well he's got a budget hour. He has, he has a. He has a steward that hour. Well man, that's right.
Speaker 4:He has one hour. That's what it goes back to. It is stewardship, it's stewardship. And that was my problem with with my son. How am I investing in the gifts that God has?
Speaker 1:given me. That's it. How am I being a good steward of that time? That's it. That's it, you know. And how am I training him, in a digital age, to learn how to do the same?
Speaker 4:Right, that's on us.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 4:And, like I said, you can become your own after so long.
Speaker 1:So you get as much information on a digital age, on a digitalир.
Speaker 3:Frog can be a great way of going back to that, and sergeants are like how easy.
Speaker 2:And Erica or michael toys taught me something about business, as you say.
Speaker 3:And sit back like every six months yeah.
Speaker 2:But I worked here last week with Scott Smith as customers and for a digital election. You know the special呢 no-transcript All over social media. They had them before Congress, right yeah, and they had these parents shows up and was pointing fingers at him about being Predatory, sexual predator, all of this stuff. And I'm thinking 11 yo and you're saying it's his fault that she was start and prayed upon. There's not a platform to prevent that?
Speaker 4:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:If he does that, it's no platform, it's no more social media. So I thought to myself what in the world is going on with those parents or grandparents that they're showing up at Congress, and what is wrong with these congressional folks that they're inviting these parents to come and be so irresponsible in their responsibility to manage and train and mature their children and grandchildren in terms of restriction?
Speaker 1:We have the mandate.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2:I make fun of the fact. When I was growing up, people would say, well, this generation is going to hell on a handbasket. Well, I have this narrative in most of my sermon that says, okay, the last time I saw a handbasket, somebody had to carry it. So if this generation is going to hell on a handbasket, who's carrying it? And I was in South Mississippi and I was carrying it.
Speaker 2:The pastor was not present when I preached. He was preaching on another campus. So we went to lunch. After we met for lunch, after what his leaders were with me, she says to pastor Ned accused us to take it out here in the hell of a handbasket. I said, well, somebody's carrying the handbasket. You got to identify who's carrying it. So we have a responsibility and accountability before God, whether it's on social media or just on the iPad or whatever it is. I got a great granddaughter. My wife wanted to just get to her and she has this thing of washing people's mouths out with soap, so she got that down, man. So I'm thinking what is going on here when the kid is being raised not only mine, but so many kids are being raised with the iPad and the parents are nowhere around and my daughter says she's just a man that I've had all the time and I won't give it to her so many illnesses.
Speaker 3:I mean, just think of the whole depravity that we can bring into this world and it's right there, at our kids' fingertips Even though it's wheels on a bus or whatever.
Speaker 2:It's restricted to those things. But man, how much of that stuff can you absorb?
Speaker 3:Absolutely, oh yes.
Speaker 2:Even though it's good stuff.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, take a shot back at you. I raised some kids on social media, been around, by the way.
Speaker 3:But anyway, sorry about that, sorry about that.
Speaker 2:Throw that in there. But you know, growing up we were required that was a certain time of the morning we had to leave the house. I don't know, you know, you know where you couldn't go, but you can go out of the house. Yeah, absolutely. You could sit on the porch, suck your thumb, whatever you wanted to do riding the swing. What are you going to leave that house? And you couldn't come back until mama said snack time or lunchtime or whatever else. That was going to be some requirement that you could not sit around and play with whatever toys or there's a regimen, there's a regimen that's the radio's right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And my dad, if a person would not buy the barrage, that would make that thing go, cause he said you've used that barrage already. Oh, you spent enough time on that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's it, I respect it, I respect it. That's it.
Speaker 1:That's it. It has been an incredible time that we've had spending with you. Any final thoughts? Any final, I guess, recommendations for believers that want to use this space well, that, like, if they're like me, don't always use this space well. Any final thoughts or encouragements to the believers out there?
Speaker 4:My final thought, if I could leave with just some information that people would need, is that you need to know your Bible. That's, at the end of the day, you need to be reading the word and get very deep into what the word says. It says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It says to seek justice, love, mercy and walk humbly. It says whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy. Think about those things I would say, before you start tweeting, posting anything on social media. Examine yourself, know what the word says and use it like the sword that it is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and Chrissy, if somebody needs social media aid, assistance, marketing media expertise, how can they catch up with you?
Speaker 4:Through social media, of course.
Speaker 1:Of course, ironically, of course. What a wonderful way to close.
Speaker 4:I am on various channels, yeah.
Speaker 1:She's an expert right Sharing.
Speaker 4:very happy things, though, sharing very happy things, sharing very happy things, hopefully.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, absolutely. Chrissy Sanders, it has been a joy and a privilege to spend some time with you today. Absolutely, on episode 45 of Living Wrecking Sound, I am your host, brian Crawford, with incredible friends and good co-host, austin Hoyle, mr Incredible Nettie Winters, signing off saying God bless.
Speaker 2:God bless. You know we moved up to Ladder from the beginning of the broadcast.
Speaker 3:at the end we became incredible from just really good friends, I know, I know he still won't call me daughter. Incredible, but that's fine.
Speaker 2:He called you, mr Incredible man. I'm trying to. What else you want?
Speaker 1:Take two signing off Saying God bless. Thanks for joining Living Wrecking Sound. If you would like more information on how you can be a part of the ongoing work of helping Christians learn how to live in the reconciliation that Jesus has already secured, please visit us online at missionmississippiorg or call us at 601-353-6477. Thanks again for listening.