When Paul on his many journeys would arrive in a new town, he would make his way to the Agora, the
marketplace. It was here in the centre of Ephesus and Corinth that he would begin preaching and teaching the people about Jesus Christ.

Paul knew that if you wanted to reach the people, you simply had to go where the people are. You cannot wait for them to come to you. And this remains true today. The difference between today and when Paul was on his evangelism mission is the Agora.

Gone are the town squares. They have been replaced by the square spaces of our computer screens. This new Agora, much like the old town square is ripe with opportunity to make Jesus known, but it also ripe with
danger. It is a good idea to protect oneself when using social media so as not to be discouraged in our mission.

I am sure many of us have seen memes we are encouraged to like and share. Some are innocuous, but many are phishing exhibitions. A good example is the one designed to entice individuals to share their answers to security question.

Normally these are laid out with a word or picture for your birth month and you will be asked to put together your month with the name of the street you grew up on to get your superhero name, for example.
Another example is the year you were born and your first pet’s name to get your rock n roll stage name.

There are many variations of this type of phishing exhibition, and far too many to describe. So it may not be just one meme that causes you to give away the answers to your bank or Facebook’s security questions, it may have occurred over the course of a few months or years.

This does not mean that we should shy away from social media and sharing our faith and the story of Jesus with the world. Rather, it simply means that we should be careful of the information we post and share with the world, just as we would be careful in a crowded marketplace to not leave our expensive camera on a table unattended.

The fact that we don’t shy away from the dangers of the world, but protect ourselves accordingly, means we can still live the Mark of Mission to proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God and make Jesus known to a world that is desperate for a message of love.