Dr Bruce Manners
Senior minister
Avondale College Seventh-day Adventist Church
I have friends. Thirty-seven of them according to my Facebook this morning, with three more who want to be friends. Wanting to be friendly, I now have 40 friends all within a couple of weeks of setting up the site.
I’d delayed joining Facebook until I had to. Avondale College Seventh-day Adventist Church has a Facebook and to be able to comment on it, I needed to join Facebook. I’d hesitated because I could see each day slipping away with the time it would take to keep my site up to date.
When I joined Facebook, I had five people who wanted to be my friend within the first hour. At five an hour, that’s 120 a day. This worried me so much I wandered around the church office telling anyone I could find I didn’t want any more friends and asking what I should do.
I’m OK now—thanks for asking. I’ve realised it’s only as time pressured as you make it. Sorry, but I don’t check it every day.
I’ve discovered my Facebook friends come in different categories: family; people I’ve known for years; those who are part of the church or the campus; people I’ve met somewhere and I’ve forgotten where; and those I’m still trying to work out who they are.
What I’m saying is I’m sure you won’t find all my Facebook friends standing around a campfire with me singing Michael W Smith’s “Friends” simply because they don’t fit into that kind of relationship.
“A true friend is someone who stabs you in the front,” said Oscar Wilde. That kind of friendship is one to treasure.
The Facebook advantage is to build connections at all levels of “friend.” At whatever level, though, each of them has value, God-given value.
Tags: Bruce Manners, Facebook