TRAPPSTR

My 100 Twitter Dads

Posted on 13. Aug, 2009 by Brett in Etc, Social Media

I fight the battle at least twice a week now–someone telling me Twitter is stupid, and a waste of time, and blah blah blah. But every day, I think Twitter is better than the day before. Tons of reasons it rocks, but my latest revelation is Twitter as a Mentoring Machine. I lost my dad when I was 19. Thankfully, I’m surrounded by Christian men who push, pull, and punch me every day to make me a better man.

But I’m also impacted by my “Twitter Dads”–Christian giants on Twitter who I’ve never met but let me in on their every day lives. I’d only be able to watch from a distance in the past. For example…

• @MichaelHyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, who shows this single guy what it looks like to love your wife. He and @GailHyatt go for walks in downtown Franklin, TN, several times a week.
• @AlbertMohler, president of Southern Seminary, who you normally see debating Christianity on CNN. He tweets about fishing with his son.
• I follow @EdStetzer, missiologist, for Lifeway who has a hilarious sense of humor. He also tweets about losing weight (he’s lost 125 lbs in the last few months).
• @ShaunAlexander, former NFL MVP, led a kid to Christ in Waffle House a few weeks back. Pretty cool.

These are just a few. Say what you want, but they impact me every day…

…They really have.

I wonder what it would mean to a kid who grew up without a dad?

Twitter can be a very low level of discipleship. The grand Twitter conversation is a hot mess most of the time, but if you listen close, you can hear the sound of iron sharpening iron. I wonder if the church will notice.