I’m a Twitterholic…
I must admit… I’m a Twitterholic. I’ve been twittering now for a few months, and I love it. It’s a great way to stay informed with the “by-the-minute” life of friends, family and people you admire. Have you ever wondered what goes on in the life of ________? Well, Twitter has made this dream come true.
“Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send updates – otherwise known as tweets – which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length” (Wikipedia). Awesome example of Web 2.0 at its best!
Not only that, I am able to sync my Twitter account to my iPhone using the awesome Twitter application, “TweetDeck“. And this makes me a happy camper (lol). It’s neat, clean and works well with my phone. Now I can get all my updates on the go. An amazing platform for aggregating mobile conversation.
So, with that said, here’s my question to you..
How can the Church leverage this kind of technology both inside and outside of their services? How can church leaders and staff use this to conduct informal meetings or to keep each other informed?
July 19, 2008
Daniel
Great question. I was actually reading recently about a church that's twittering out sermon notes during the message and allowing people to interact. I thought that was pretty cool.
When I was at Whiteboard I was not yet into the whole twittering thing (that's actually where it was birthed for me), but, a good friend was and people were posting tweets like crazy. Interacting, posting thoughts, convictions, excitement, all that. Pretty awesome because none of those people knew each other but where instantly connected in community. I saw several people meet each other for the first time that had been twittering for a while. Cool stuff.
I think that you can definitely leverage that and use it pretty effectively. What if every morning a church twittered a daily devotional thought. Or, like that church did, twitter sermon notes. Not fear service disruption, but actually integrate it in the service. Make people feel even more connected. Update people with urgent prayer needs and announcements. So much you can do.
My name is Daniel, and I'm also a Twitterholic...
July 19, 2008
Antwon Davis
Daniel,
I love your feedback.
I've also heard of churches integrating Twitter into their services to engage the audience. One church actually gave the audience an opportunity to Twitter their thoughts concerning the message and displayed people's responses on the screens in the sanctuary. It was a great way to see what was in the minds and hearts of the people.
I think it could help pastors, church leaders, and staff better understand how to meet the needs of the congregation more efficiently and effectively.
T H I N K | C H A N G E
July 30, 2008
jesse phillips
yes, awesome question.
I think it's as you mentioned, leaders connecting. I think it could/should be something different than current where you get all kinds of updates about all kinds of stuff - so it gets hard to sift through the clutter.
I would like to see something that better facilitates a discussion (140 chars!? yeah right) - yes discussion, or sharing of links, or sharing of relevant blog posts. Perhaps if you could tag your tweets as one of several relevant catagories: worship, new site, creative service ideas, outreach event, leadership, events, news. And then filter them.
just an idea.