In every age, discipleship has always been about adopting and living out a lifestyle that imitated Jesus and went against the cultural currents of the society. While disciples are not removed from the social and cultural elements that make up the fabric of the society in which they live and work, they are expected to exhibit in words and deeds characteristics that can identify them as serving God’s kingdom – proclaiming the good news, calling people to repentance, working to promote values of harmony and justice, and making an option for the poor. These are the constants in the life of the disciples of Jesus and serve to determine their mission and vocation.

In the digital environment where multiple boundaries of time, space, cultural and social taboos, and communication blocks are decreased or eliminated, there are tremendous opportunities to promote the values of the Kingdom but also countless ways which the work can be obfuscated and undermined. Thus, the work of mission and evangelisation must be intentionally and carefully thought out, planned and executed in order to ensure the most effective use of resources and the best possible results. Without conscientious and well-coordinated tasks at the local and global levels, missionary and evangelisation work may become a series of well-intentioned but arbitrary individual efforts that not only bring no tangible results but might even oppose and cancel each other out due to lack of uniformity and coherence. The fact that digital technology facilitates individual initiatives in content production is a valuable opportunity, but also a risky reality when individual activities are carried out whimsically and do not reflect the overall goal and outlook of the Church.

As discipleship is defined by words and deeds, missionary discipleship must not only be about presenting ideas, teachings, thoughts, spiritual reflections and the like on social media and other digital platforms that promote a sort of ‘online piety,’ but also engage the people of God and the people of goodwill present in the digital space in projects that affect people’s everyday lives – for example, projects that aim to close digital inequality between gender and economic classes; create education opportunities for the youth living in remote places around the world; promote digital access and literacy for the elderly who through the aid of digital technology, can access content and join in online groups in order to expand their social and spiritual horizons and overcome limitations due to poor health and old age.

Missionary disciples (whether lay people, seminarians, religious, or priest) on social media would do well to be aware of the ways of posting and sharing content that can cause misunderstanding, exacerbate division, incite conflict, and deepen prejudices. These contents do not contribute, on the contrary, cause great harm to the work of evangelisation and mission. Due to the scrolling nature embedded in the structure of social media, contents get very little opportunity to attract and maintain the attention of the viewer. Positive and negative impressions are created in a matter of a few seconds but can leave much longer effect on the audience. Therefore, content needs to be intentional – avoiding chances for negative impressions, and in the case that it manages to sustain the attention of the viewer, will lead them into deeper appreciation of Christian spirituality and values and greater desire to collaborate in the work of promoting them.  

Missionary disciples on social media must “share what they live”. This means the content shared has to reflect genuine and ongoing life experiences of discipleship rather than those artificially created and orchestrated specifically for social media – which is the case of many so-called life experiences being uploaded onto social media today. Those experiences are about creating misleading impressions, self-aggrandizing, and self-promotion. They can even cause harm to others’ self-esteem. Missionary disciples are expected to always witness in such ways that highlight Jesus and the Kingdom that Jesus proclaimed through his life, death, and resurrection.  

In Pope Francis’ message for World Mission Sunday 2022, the Holy Father reiterates the instruction of Jesus to his disciples before ascending into heaven: “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). The ends of the earth in today’s context is not only the geographical space that makes up the world but also the digital spaces where people congregate in various communities and constitute an essential feature of contemporary human life. As “the mission will always be a missio ad gentes,” disciples are expected to be present wherever the people are. Discipleship today requires us to seek out geographical places where the Gospel still has not reached as well as the digital spaces where the Gospel can inform, transform, and challenge. Wherever we end up, it is important to heed Pope Francis’ reminder that the task of the disciple is to proclaim rather than proselytise. And we should not become stagnant and comfortable in one place but be challenged  “to press beyond familiar places in bearing witness to [Jesus].”