COMMITTEE ON CHRISTIAN EDUCATION FEATURE

Churches and members who like New Horizons can now “like” it on Facebook. As of January 2018, any Facebook user is now able to find, like, and share New Horizons articles, book reviews, news items, and announcements.

Why Facebook?

Over eighty OP churches are on Facebook, not to mention members and attendees. Putting the magazine’s content on social media is no new mission, but rather a new take on a long-standing mission: serving the denomination of the OPC. The Committee on Christian Education hopes that entering Facebook will widen the readership of New Horizons and give readers new ways to engage with its content while at the same time providing another platform for OP churches to connect with each other and the denomination.

Steps to Engagement

If you are on Facebook, following New Horizons is simple: type in “New Horizons in the OPC” and click “like” and “follow” on the New Horizons’ page. This ensures that its content will pop up on your newsfeed.

If you are an administrator or editor of your church’s Facebook page, there are a few steps that you can take to engage with New Horizons. Hopefully, this will be a help to you as you create content for your page.

First, hit “like” and “follow” on the New Horizons’ page. Second, consider sharing posts from its page that are relevant to your “followers.” Third, if your church has hosted an event or celebrated an occasion and a photo album is posted to Facebook, consider tagging “New Horizons in the OPC.” (Churches that have a news item or announcement for the print edition of New Horizons should, as always, send it to danny.olinger@opc.org.)

Social Media for the Glory of God

In the digital age, social media of all kinds increasingly absorb the time and attention of Christians and non-Christians alike. Like all technological tools, it can be used for good or ill. But its pervasiveness in our lives—did you check your phone since starting this page?—provides unique challenges for the believer. In his recent book, 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You (Crossway, 2017), Tony Reinke wrote that “we use digital distractions as a way of keeping eternity away.” Perhaps New Horizons can in some small way serve as a reminder of our great God while you’re scrolling through Facebook’s feed.