Pastoring or Policing: Should Your Pastor Know What You Do Online?

A study shows 59.9% of the world’s population has social media accounts.¹ That’s more than half of the world population. A whole new community has emerged on social media where people interact, engage ideas, do business, share the gospel e.t.c., During the week, I read a post on X which inspired this article. A user posted “Your Pastor has the right to ORDER you to delete content on your social media if you have content like that…“

I agreed with the post, but I wasn’t certain about the use of the word order. I gave it some thought and engaged the post. I responded,  “I’m  a Pastor. I agree. I have engaged some members before on their SM activities. But I’ll not use the word order. That may be overstepping my authority.”

After the engagement, I began to ponder whether church congregations and their leadership should be bothered by the social media activities of their members. Should pastors have a view of members’ social media activities? If so, to what extent? This raises a number of questions regarding people’s privacy and the risk of pastoral policing.

But are these legitimate concerns?

Social Media and Christian Living

Social media is the new neighborhood with friends from far — people you have never met. It has become an extension of life. Marriages, business deals, ministry partnership and other positive life events have happened as a result of social media. There are groupings around common interest. As a “new community”, social media mirrors the reflection of what goes on in the real world. That however is not always true. Social media also presents the dangers of a double-life, where people present a social media persona different from who they are in reality.

We all know people whose online personas vary drastically from their personalities in face-to-face interactions and that variance is often negative.²

Christians can fall into that double life and many have indeed walked that path. For the Christian, that dichotomy of a double life between social media and real life should not exist. What we are offline should reflect what we are online.

When a believer’s life on social media is a double life, what happens?

Pastoral Intervention

A Pastor is a shepherd and leader with the responsibility of oversight over a congregation of believers under him. He teaches, preaches, counsels, prays for people, evangelises and equip believers for ministry among many other duties. The apostle Paul in a parting message to the elders of the church in Ephesus charges them to take care of the flock over which  the Holy Spirit has made them overseers, to care for the church of God (Acts 20:28)

Christianity is not only what we do on Sunday. But our everyday life must be a reflection of our beliefs including our social media activities. What we do on social media must indeed show we are Christians. I am not referring to posting sermons, bible texts, Christians articles and all the things Christians do in sharing the gospel. There is a place for that. But does your online engagements points to a Christian?

Since social media has become an extension of our lives, Pastors should extend caring for their flock online. That means keeping an eye over what members are doing online. They are not being policed; they are being pastored. Pastor,

It is … naïve to assume that [y]our members are either not engaging in any online interactions or that all of them are doing so in ways that honor Christ. If we wish to shepherd people well, there will be times when we have to know how they conduct themselves online in order to address it.³

Now this may not work for big congregations, but is practical for small congregations where everyone knows everyone. A Pastor should have an eye on what his people are doing online as an extension of his pastoral ministry. What are they posting, how are they engaging, who are they following, what is influencing their beliefs, are there sinful patterns in their activities that needs to be addressed? And when it becomes necessary, a Pastor should be able to ask members to delete inappropriate content, comment and engagement. Believer, that is not policing. It is pastoring, a caring for your soul.

Christian Community and Responsibilities

A Christian is not a lone ranger. It is expected every Christian belongs to a church –– “a group of Christians who meet together regularly and who have some measure of a commitment to each other to be the body of Christ together, which includes biblical leadership and biblical teaching and preaching and a proper celebration of the Lord’s Supper and a right application of Christian discipline.“⁴

When God saves a sinner, he joins them to a community of believers in a church where each has responsibility over one another in the walk of faith. This community encourages one another, rebukes one another, corrects one another, love one another, prays and cares for one another. As members of a church community therefore, we must have a view of one another’s activities on social media and “let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works” (Hebrews 10:24).

Dear Christian, social media is a public space with the eyes of the world watching, the eyes of your fellow Christians watching, the eyes of members of your local assembly watching and the eyes of your church leaders watching. And ultimately, God sees what you do on social media.

Notes
1. University of Maine, “Social Media Statistics Details,” Undiscovered Maine, https://umaine.edu/undiscoveredmaine/small-business/resources/marketing-for-small-business/social-media-tools/social-media-statistics-details/ (22 May 2026).
2. Nathan White, “Social Media And Pastoral Ministry,” The Heidelblog (blog), September 1, 2022, https://heidelblog.net/2022/09/social-media-and-pastoral-ministry/.
3. ibid
4. Chris Hutchison, “What Is a Church?,” 9Marks, May 25, 2023, 9marks.org (22 May 2026).