The Xconomy blog has an informative posting, Tweets from the Edge: The Ups and Downs of Twitter. It talks about current Twitter use and even a potential change to open source.
Some have described tweets as inane. Some see twitter users as people who are very egotistical. Some view most twitter users as addicts. Yet many are using the service. Is there a good use for Twitter by churches without the church becoming an egotistical addict? I say yes, but not necessarily as many use it now.
What I mostly see in Twitter is a series of daily mundane, inane comments that are kind of ridiculous to "follow". Nobody really cares when you'll be home, what baseball game you are watching, or why the Mets stink, let alone, be subjected to unfathomable tweets such as, "Dude!" as an answer to someone specific.
Wouldn't it be great if churches actually avoided bombarding people with mundane tweets and instead gave them less frequents ones that had some genuine religious content? Church webs, blogs, and Twitter accounts are not personal ones -- they need to reflect the spiritual life of that church. They need to have a deliberate spiritual slant. Christians are called to live "in" the world yet not to be "of" the world. Our online presence should reflect that.
Some have described tweets as inane. Some see twitter users as people who are very egotistical. Some view most twitter users as addicts. Yet many are using the service. Is there a good use for Twitter by churches without the church becoming an egotistical addict? I say yes, but not necessarily as many use it now.
What I mostly see in Twitter is a series of daily mundane, inane comments that are kind of ridiculous to "follow". Nobody really cares when you'll be home, what baseball game you are watching, or why the Mets stink, let alone, be subjected to unfathomable tweets such as, "Dude!" as an answer to someone specific.
Wouldn't it be great if churches actually avoided bombarding people with mundane tweets and instead gave them less frequents ones that had some genuine religious content? Church webs, blogs, and Twitter accounts are not personal ones -- they need to reflect the spiritual life of that church. They need to have a deliberate spiritual slant. Christians are called to live "in" the world yet not to be "of" the world. Our online presence should reflect that.
None of this is to say that churches should not set up non-religious webs sites, blogs, or Twitter accounts with the aim to address a specific topic (baseball, computers, whatever). Those type sites need to be designed specifically for non-church people, with minimal reference to the church or a religion. Keep that type site separate from your "normal" church ones.
Churches could very productively use a church Twitter account to:
- Remind members about important functions or meetings.
- Advertise upcoming events.
- Give a spiritual message (limited to 140 characters, of course).
- Pass out urgent news (for example, news of a church closure due to impending bad weather).
Pastors and youth leaders could use Twitter to:
- Reflect on an event that day (with spiritual overtones, not just mundane thoughts).
- Pitch an upcoming church event.
- Thank specific people for helping others (but avoid full names to protect privacy).
- Give a short spiritual message.
This runs counter to current Twitter use, but to gain respectability, avoid irritating people, and give more meaning to church and church-related tweets:
- Limit tweets to significant ones. No bursts of "I'm headed to the store" or "Hot Dawgs! Go Georgia!!"
- Limit tweeting frequency. Start with a maximum of one per day unless urgent news needs to get out. If you are tweeting more than once per day, you are probably losing potential "followers".
- Do a reality check. Ask yourself, "What religious or spiritual meaning does my Tweet have?" If the answer is, "None", seriously consider keeping silent. Tweeting too much on unimportant, non-religious topics by church leaders and organizations can viewed as "for the birds".
