Why does anyone follow another person?
Peter followed Jesus because he was promised he could become a “fisher of men”, instead of a simple fisherman. Cultural context tells us that being the follower of a rabbi was a rarity in the past; only a chosen few could aspire to learn and become as good as their master. I cannot say with certainty that most of us would quit our jobs today if asked. Zacchaeus followed Jesus’s instructions to come down from the tree and to have lunch with him. We follow Jesus because we believe He is the one true God, but the reality is that there are many others out there who similarly claim to be gods. How do we then decide who to follow?
The turning point is the degree of connection that we share with the person. We will follow to learn, to be part of something bigger than ourselves, but only if we believe in what the person is selling. Social media works no differently. In fact, its biggest selling point is how many more people that we can reach — we, being the church.
This weekend, the youth spent their afternoon in training with Colours, a homegrown non-profit who specialise in social media management. J and S did an excellent job taking us through the basic structure for storytelling and the fundamental tools for content creation like CapCut and Canva. It certainly was eye-opening; we have departed from the past where we would have ten- people teams holding heavy cameras, bounces and overhead lighting to produce a ten minute video. In an age of fifteen to thirty second “reels” (or videos), the online space is a free-for-all and creating content has become far easier than we could have ever imagined. However, it also means that it has become faster to swipe away from something that bores us than it is to give it our attention. The factor that keeps a creator far above the rest is their ability to value-add.
Pictured: The youths listening to J and S teach
This is where our “playbook” or brand identity guide sets us apart; we approach our presence as a personality. If TAVA were a person, who would you be talking to? Colours encapsulated our heart and desire to love by action well, and we landed on “The Neighbour.” I’m incredibly excited for you all to see how this translates into our content. Without giving too much else away, the youth are presently involved in brainstorming and conceptualising for content in this area. Aunty KS and I are especially heartened for them to see our heart in this process (love becoming action!) by way of their service to Talent Beacon. LX has kindly agreed to share some of her thoughts on what the experience has been like so far:
One part of this training that stood out to me was witnessing the different videos Colours made for their clients. For instance, they documented one Singaporean’s (Bella’s) move to start a Thai orphanage, which eventually encouraged others to head down there and contribute when they visited Thailand. Watching this video left me SHOCKED 😦😦 I never knew that we were able to use social media for such purposes, and it occurred to me that social media is indeed so powerful 🤩🤩.
Pictured: Isaac joining us on Zoom to share Colours' heart.
Please pray with us as we continue with the other instalments of this training, that our work is edified and established by His hands (Psalms 90:17) and that allows Talent Beacon’s core to shine through. As Isaac puts so well, we are not looking for virality, nor an astronomical number of likes, shares or views. We are looking to create a space where people can get to know us, to know of what we do and to come onboard if they share our heart.
The Gospel will need to be preached till the ends of the earth. Social media gives us an opportunity to speed up this process as we continue to build communities online and offline. Have a blessed week ahead!
Signing off, Zoe (for the Talent Beacon Youth)
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