Oreos in the Dark

$4,000,000 for 30 seconds. That's how much airtime for a Super Bowl ad cost this year. $130,000 per second. And that is just the airtime. Don't forget all the money paid to the advertising agencies. And the celebrities who got paid to appear in those ads.

And for all that, the best ad of Super Bowl XLVII was not even on TV.

In the middle of the Super Bowl, the lights went out at the Superdome in New Orleans. A power outage. CBS put up its best talking heads to try to fill the time. And over on Twitter, everyone at home was having a great time making Super Bowl Blackout jokes.

In the midst of it all @Oreo posted this:

No need to pay for air time. Oreo captured the moment perfectly. Or rather their social media team did. 15,500 retweets later, Oreo had a viral hit their hand. And how much does their Twitter presence cost the company? Oh yeah, that's right. Nothing. Nada. (Sure, sure. They pay their social media team. But no air time cost. No celebrity endorsements to pay.)

And here is the kicker. Your congregation has the exact same tools at their disposal.

That is the power of social media. The playing field is leveled. Everyone has the same tools. Everyone has the same power to share their message. Everyone has the same megaphone to talk about their work.

Which really only leaves me with one question: Why is the church not making better use of this tool? Why would the church pass up this opportunity to share the good news with the world?