How Social Media Ministry Reveals the Unlimited Imagination of God

Special thanks to Pastor Alan George for writing this post.

“I want you to go to the world and tell them what I’ve done for you.” 

At a recent Church Social Media Roundtable, I had the honor of sharing this message that God put on my heart when I first started in ministry. The roundtable, hosted at Life.Church, gathered a dozen of the most creative, innovative churches in the world together to learn and share about using social media to reach the world for Christ. (By the way, you can check out all of our trainings, tips and hacks for Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok on Life.Church Open Network.)

Sometime around lunch break, all talk of social media stopped and I was invited to share my story. Being the Life.Church Online Pastor was not something I ever saw for myself, to say the least.

I grew up in a little country called Bahrain in the Middle East—I like to joke that you have to zoom all the way in on a map to even see it. When I first started to hear God’s promptings, I honestly didn’t know how I could reach my own town, much less the entire world. But God had given me clear and direct instructions: Go into the world and tell them what I’ve done for you. And though I had no idea how to do this, God had done so much for me and I knew I had to try. 

Continually, God reminded me of Ephesians 3:20, and it always gave me the encouragement I needed to continue to pursue my calling. God might just be able to do more than I can imagine.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us… Ephesians 3:20 

I didn’t know the “how,” but I did know the “Who.” God was leading the way. I trusted that He would help me reach the world if I would only trust in Him and be obedient to my calling. So my wife, Meryl, and I got to work. After a few years in ministry, I became the Life.Church Online Pastor, and shortly after, something clicked into place. My calling became very clear to me. Through the power of online ministry and the internet, God really was able to reach the world. It finally made sense; I finally understood what God meant by his promptings from all those years ago. I want you to go to the world and tell them what I’ve done for you. Online ministry allows me to do just that.

It was all he had asked and imagined. 

I felt like I had it all figured out. I felt like I understood God’s plan at last. But He is bigger than even our wildest dreams and most ambitious plans.

One day I was speaking in front of a crowd, and I shared about all that God had done through Church Online. In the middle of my sermon, I felt God speak to me. “Do you think I’m done?” It was so clear and it hit me like a gut punch. God could tell that I thought His will had been done. My first reaction—jokingly, of course—was, “Okay God, I get it. But can you just hold off a minute? I’m kind of in the middle of preaching right now.”

I realized it was true. In my amazement for all that He has done, I began to limit what He would do in the future. I believed that we had already accomplished what God set out for us to do. I later prayed in response, “Well, yes, God, I’m reaching the world like you asked me to. I’ve done it already.” And God asked me, “Why do you limit Who I am?” I realized that just because my own imagination has limits, God’s doesn’t. Despite my amazement at the thousands of salvations I’d seen at Church Online, despite the lives I’d witnessed be forever changed, God wasn’t finished.  

God’s not done. 

Complacency was limiting my view of what God wanted to do and what God was capable of. Just because I had reached a certain threshold of being able to reach the world through Church Online, that didn’t mean that God didn’t have even bigger plans laid out before me.

After this discovery, I continued to pray for renewed passion for the mission, and God brought me back to Ephesians 3:20, this time in The Passion Translation version. 

Never doubt God’s mighty power to work in you and accomplish all this. He will achieve infinitely more than your greatest request, your most unbelievable dream, and exceed your wildest imagination! He will outdo them all, for his miraculous power constantly energizes you.

Suddenly, something new struck me in this version: His miraculous power constantly energizes you. I learned that as I continue to look forward to what God will do next—without becoming complacent—God’s miraculous power will constantly energize me. And that’s true for you, too. 

Whatever ministry you’re in—from social media to lead pastor to designer to Church Online pastor—remember this: you’ve been handpicked by God to reach the world. And because God has picked you, He has equipped you. There’s more that God wants to do through you and your ministry than you can begin to imagine. 

Continue to look to God for your energy and passion, continue to be in wonder of His unending imagination and His unending love for every person in the world. 

“I want you to go to the world and tell them what I’ve done for you.” 

More from the Church Social Media Roundtable

To dig in to the more practical side of the Church Social Media Roundtable, find resources, including Facebook Lives from the event.