HIS MESSAGE, MULTIPLIED CHINA—Meet Walter – Social Media Student

My home church doesn’t have access to Western-style social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. In fact, they are prohibited. The most popular social media platform in China is WeChat. Because of restrictions, though, we don’t have much freedom to share the Message of Hope through media. A few years ago, my church tried to set up a web site. We now have a WeChat account. We have been attempting to promote our church and the good news through the Internet, but because of the limitations, we cannot post too much. We can’t post too many faces or anything that would put believers in jeopardy. So we don’t really have any social media outreach. Here at AIMM, I have learned that social media is powerfully relevant. We have to do it, but we have to think about how we can do it in China. Our church is blessed with many university students and young people. Many of them are very gifted and have a great deal of experience with social media. Even if they haven’t used it for talking about faith, many have used it for business. Someday, perhaps, they will be able to help our church with its social media ministry. In the meantime, we use WeChat a lot to check with one another online. Unfortunately, it is currently limited to friends we already know, especially the people already in our church. But I know we need to reach those we don’t know. There are about 500 in my church, which is very limited compared to the Chinese population. I am expecting that through social media, we can encourage many people who are struggling in the future.