To tweet, or not to tweet…

Are you asking that question?

It seems almost daily that a new social media site comes onto the scene. Facebook, Twitter, hi5, Digg, LinkedIn, and Friendster are just a few of the over 500 currently on the internet. These sites can be a powerful tool for the advancement of the gospel, and they can also be a dangerous medium for wasting time, destroying your marriage and neglecting your kids. Ultimately, the problem doesn’t exist in Facebook or Twitter. The problem is in the hearts of sinful men. Our nature, apart from faith in Jesus and the Holy Spirits guiding, is to turn all things towards gratifying our evil desires. Like our great grandparents in Genesis 6:5, every thought from our unregenerate hearts was evil all the time.

Thankfully, through the Holy Spirits empowerment, God uses redeemed people to help redeem creation and culture. Christians get to (and should be) the front runners in utilizing technology to advance the gospel to the very ends of the earth. At Peine Ridge Church we’re seeking to do this in several ways. One I’d like to mention to you now is twitter.

Here’s how twitter works: Each user can follow and be followed. When people follow you, they see the ‘tweets’ you post. A tweet, similar to a text message, can be 140 characters. This forces you to say a whole lot with only a few letters and symbols. It also enables people to see what your thinking or doing without taking much time away from their task at hand. On the flip side, you can follow friends, community leaders, or churches that share helpful and often humorous messages throughout the day.

If you attend a church that uses twitter or have pastors that tweet, I think you should get a twitter account. Here’s why:
1) Your church leaders are interested in maximizing their impact on equipping Christians and engaging culture through technological means. Follow their lead!
2) Your brothers and sisters can be greatly blessed to hear the wisdom God is revealing to you and your experiences of God’s grace throughout the day. They can also know how to better pray for you in times of struggle. Following and being followed by your church family can foster authentic community throughout the week!
3) Many of your non-Christian friends and co-workers use twitter. What an awesome way to learn their interest and be reminded to pray for their salvation than by receiving their daily tweets!
4) Your tweeting church is likely sending out helpful info and important reminders for your good through twitter. Do they tweet when the sermon audio is up? Do they use twitter to announce event cancellations? Take advantage of their efforts to shepherd you by setting up an account!
5) Your Twitter experience can be completely tailored to meet the desires you have for the application. If you don’t want to be interupted throughout the day or you don’t want to pay for text messaging, don’t receive the automatic updates on your phone. If you don’t want to follow a lot of people, then only follow the few you’re interested in hearing from. If you don’t want people to hear whats going with you, then don’t tweet and don’t accept follower request. Its really that simple.

Six months ago I set up a twitter account for my bride. She’s a busy wife, mother, and friend. There is only a few people she follows, and to this day she’s never sent a tweet. Every time Peine Ridge Church sends out a tweet, it comes automatically to her phone like a text message. She likes this because it helps her to stay informed on important information. It also encourages her when she sees how PRC is accomplishing its mission of exalting Christ through tweets that help equip Christians and engage our community. She’ll never be a twitter junkie (like her significant other), but she’ll always know what’s going on with her church family. That makes me happy…

So, are you convinced yet? If you are from PRC and you only wanted to follow one friend on twitter, here’s my recommendation: follow @peineridge