TRAPPSTR

7 ways Twitter can rock the church

Posted on 05. Oct, 2009 by Brett in God, Social Media

It’s Twitter Week at TRAPPSTR.com! 5 days of Twitter madness! Whether you love Twitter or think it’s hot garbage, check back each day for a fresh look at the state of the Twitterverse. If you haven’t signed up for Twitter, DO IT NOW! You can find the TRAPPSTR on Twitter right here. If you like something you see, pass this article along by clicking on the SEND THIS POST TO A FRIEND button at bottom.

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If you light a lantern on a warm summer night, bugs will appear instantly. New technologies, like a lantern, always attract the creepy crawly things. The spammers, porn-hustlers, hackers, and scam-architects have a knack for quickly filling the space created by new innovations. Twitter is no different as they continue to fight the hoodlums of the Internet.

Unfortunately, the church is usually the last to the party. We look at the lantern in the distance with a skeptical eye. We criticize it. We prefer our dimly lit little neighborhood. Instead of grabbing the lantern and launching out into the darkness, we sit back and wait for the world to validate it. Only then will we venture close.

I’m not sure the church fully understands the opportunities Twitter is offering right now. The longevity of Twitter remains in question, but for the time being, it is one of the most dynamic new technologies that the church should not miss out on.

Here are 7 ways church leaders can quickly harness the power of Twitter and channel it towards the Gospel:

(Note: Some of these are relevant for individual believers and some can be utilized by local church congregations.)

1. Twitter as Affirmation Megaphone – I’m a huge believer in the power of affirmation, using words to champion someone else. God calls each of us to encourage and affirm other believers. Private affirmation is one thing, but when you affirm someone in front of hundreds or thousands of followers on Twitter, your words become so much more meaningful to that person.

2. Twitter as Townsquare – At the core of church is community. At the core of community is communication. What church bulletins, print newsletters, and phone trees were for churches in the 1990s, Twitter will be for the next decade. Twitter is free and much more nimble than previous methods of communication. Tons of churches are already using Twitter to make announcements, send out prayer alerts, and unite a community of believers separated by distance and distractions.

3. Twitter as Wisdom Amplifier – To me, Proverbs is the Twitter of the Bible–free-standing snippets about life and God, stacked one on top of the other. I love it when Christians use Twitter the same way. Every day I’m encouraged by the Bible verses and great Christian quotes I see on Twitter.

4. Twitter as Prayer Multiplier – I’ve seen this one used many times on Twitter. I can’t think of a better way to quickly get a large number of people focused on one prayer effort.

5. Twitter as Discipleship Machine – I wrote about this a few weeks back in a post titled “My 100 Twitter Dads.” Basically, I explain the impact some men of God have had on my life through Twitter. Check out the post as I explain how “Twitter can be a very low level of discipleship.”

6. Twitter as Transparency Tool - Growing up, my dad was the pastor of a large church in a small town. He always struggled with the weird way people looked at him, viewing him as a super-religious “man of the cloth” and not as a normal, every-day guy with problems. Twitter is the single best technology I’ve seen to help Christian leaders be transparent in front of their people. It’s extended their influence from an hour in the pulpit each Sunday to a 24 hour ministry where the Gospel gets beautifully woven together with kids’ football practices, Friday night at the movies, and life stress.

7. Twitter as Gospel Revealer - While I don’t think Christians should turn Twitter into an online version of a Gospel tract, I do believe it can be a great way to introduce people to the Gospel.

I’m not an advocate of “Christianizing” Twitter. But if the world is having a great conversation, believers should humbly but boldly jump in.

What other ways can the church use Twitter?