“Tweet Seats” are a growing trend in the theater world: free seats given away to people who promise to tweet about the show throughout the performance.
We all have seen people tweet and update facebook during church… some of us might even admit doing it ourselves.
Should churches be encouraging this practice? How could we better leverage social media during our services?
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church twitter
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Broadcasting a service for those who can’t attend is one thing, but to encourage tweeting, texting, or other social media during a service is just inviting more distraction for those around the techies, and it undermines the importance of paying attention to what is occuring during worship. If one is texting, etc., then that one isn’t connecting with what is going on in worship. When I was a child, playing “hang man” was considered a distraction because I wasn’t paying attention to what was most important. So, I see this trend as being one more area where the church doesn’t need to be current with public trends; it would seem to undermine the importance of worship.
I see what you are saying, but were you encouraged to take notes with the pen and paper you used to draw hangman? Social media and their devices are tool which people need to learn and decide to either be mastered by or masters of. I agree that it can be very distracting, but why can these forms not be used to the glory of God and as worship during a service
Hello Everyone;
Well, the truth is, people are going to tweet, text, play games etc. regardless.
The antidote to having the worship use multi-media through out. Keeping people engaged is a challenge.
Another funny truth is that while you thought folks were listening to you preach or etc., they were actually tuning out and thinking about dinner, activities, ball games etc.
So what we thought was being clued into the worship was actually passive acceptance.
Just ask people what’s going on in their head during the sermon. I’ve been a pastor, am a worship leader, and I know what I do. If the service is “boring” or irrelevant, I check out. I talk to the Lord, pray for others, think about other things, I’ve even fallen asleep.
One thing for sure you’re going to legistlate what people do. You can try, but people will resent it, or just tune you out altogether.
Solution???? Roll with the times. Find a way to make tweeting, texting, relevant to the people.
You fight technology and you’ll lose everytime, at least the young folks you’ll lose.
Our young Sr. Pastor now, uses tweet to his advantage. In his sermons he uses interactive tweeting and texting to answer questions about the sermon content.
Humph! Use technology for you. I’m an old guy, and I learn new tricks. Technology is here to stay and it’s only going to get more intricate and complex.
The church has to adjust! And truthfully it will because as we die off, the young will change. I’d rather be on the change side than fight something that really doesn’t need oppositon.
Jesus said, “Don’t put new wine in old wine skins…” or vice versa! If you’re wine skin is old and brittle, it’s time to get a new one.
Blessings,
James
From James Sorry: My typing stinks sometimes.
You ARE NOT going to legislate what people DO. They will passively knob their head “yes” but their actions will say “NO”.
Preach something worth tweeting
great quote Micah!
I don’t know much about techno stuff but I do have 6 adult children. When I realized the most popular way to communicate with them was to text, I learned how. At first when I saw my kids messing with their phones or whatever I was frustrated and felt ignored; however, I now see it is a way of communicating and interacting in a way I may find uncomfortable at first but desire the relationship more than my personal inconvenience. As a young person in the 60′s and 70′s I always wanted to interact with the preacher and others while the sermon was being preached. I had questions and I wanted to know what others were thinking and had experienced. If we shut the door on these new forms of communicating just because we view them as being used disrespecttully we are going to be left in the dust and more importantly the relationships we could develop will pass us by. My responsibility as a senior citizen is to remain open. I may learn a few things and I believe if I listen I may learn a few things too and gain a different perspective while picking up new and valuable relationships along the way while deepening others I already have the privelege of being enhanced by.