Social Media

The Kentucky Annual Conference has a policy of monitoring the social media expressions of its canidates for ministry.  You can read about it here.

I'm not going to judge the policy or comment on it.  I don't really know anything about it except what the article on the UM Reporter discusses.

I am, however, a blogger.  I post on Facebook, and my devotionals are posted on a Devotional Blog that hosts the devotionals from our church's ministry.  I am on the web, and I realize the following:

• The internet is public.  What I write can be read by anyone.  I need to always remember that.
• We sometimes don't use the same rules of conduct on the internet that we would in person.  One blogger I know reminded her readers that they should consider her blog like her living room.  If you wouldn't say it in person, in someone's living room, then don't post it.  I like to add, if you wouldn't say it in person, in someone's living room, with your mother listening, then don't post it.
• What I write today -- what I think today -- may not be the same thing I would post in a year.  I grow and I change my mind.
• What I post is there forever. Or at least for a few years.
• My posts don't have the benefit of my expressions and voice inflection. They could be misunderstood.