Twitter experienced a boom last year. A big boom. It started 2009 with well under 10 million unique visits a month, and ended with over 60 million. It's an understatement to say that more and more people are starting to use Twitter.
As people increasingly tweet their ideas, mishaps, and observations to the world, they will start to tweet at church, maybe even during a service. While some churches encourage questions and thoughts on Twitter during services and post them on screens at the front, others don't. This became apparent in the online community after Time's article highlighted three churches approach to integrating Twitter into their services.
While the churches that Time discussed view Twitter as adding to individuals engagement with sermons and the community, others view it as a distraction. Josh Harris boldly states in his blog that he views using Twitter as distracting from engaging with God's word and accommodating to culture to instead focus on staying under 140 words. The article also spurred John Piper to list seven theses to "guide you through a careful, critical effort to bring faith and technology together in service to the Lord." Chad Jarnagin points out that its not necessarily bad or good, but if you allow it to distract you.
Whether you view Twitter as a hindrance, or a means of engaging during a service, it will happen. How will your church adapt or approach this new phenomenon?
Twitter During a Service: Engaging or Hindrance?
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December 9, 2009Updated On
February 27, 2014Let's Discuss…
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