While I was at Q Conference a very nice man introduced himself to me as one of my blog readers and then told me we were also connected on Twitter. We chatted for awhile. Slowly I realized who he was, John Voelz, co-pastor of Westwinds Community Church in Jackson, Mich, a church whose website I have blogged about – it has a UStream box on the landing page.
It was great to meet John in person and one of the most interesting things he told me was that Time Magazine had just interviewed him for a future article on Twitter for churches. I assumed that must mean in the next couple of months. But sure enough, although it’s only been a week since Q, here is Time Magazine’s article Twittering in Church, With the Pastor’s Encouragement.
Looks like mainstream media is noticing that one day soon, we’ll walk into church and instead of the monitors reading: “Please turn your phone off” we’ll see “Please turn your phone on”.
You can read more on using Twitter for church purposes at the site hosted by Church Technology Evangelist Anthony Coppedge: Twitter for Churches.
I believe twitters changing the way we do sermon notes and lazy people like me can simply look at our church’s hashtag(#Newsong- maybe we share this with the band? Oh well) to review the highlights. It’s beautiful. Thanks Cynthia.
We don’t have any tweeting yet, but thinking about live-blogging.
I was at Q this year as well and found the lack of twittering and blogging to be a real blessing and allowed me to get quite a bit more out of the conference. As Shane Hipps was saying – are we really present when twittering?
I’m from the UK and I go to a church where there will be about 300 people in a service (of which there are 4 each Sunday) and I’m wondering what sort of size are the churches in the States where twittering is the norm?
Ok, since I’ve been back from Q for a few days, my reflections are a bit clearer. I respected the no live blogging & no twittering requests. I did enjoy the heightened sense of presence as I blogged in a my previous post. But, overall, I found it restrictive. My guess is that it will be increasingly impossible to limit in the future.
Many people at Q kept their laptops open. I chose to keep mine closed to respect the sensibilities of the organizers. Those with open computers used them to take notes….. that’s basically the same as blogging or micro-blogging. So, as internet accessibility grows, we are likely to enter an era where those for whom it’s normative (ie iGeneration) will find ways to access it everywhere.
That said, there are always restrictions on tech. High School students don’t talk on their phones during school classes, etc. But, restricting the ‘back channel’ of conversation during public events may be increasingly viewed with disdain.
I twittered during our Good Friday service – and made sure to check with the pastor before I did so.
Obviously, I think twittering in church is a good thing. I tried to be discreet and didn’t tweet every little thing. Just the main points of the service (worship, communion time, etc.) I’m going to have to make sure my pastor gets that Time article, thanks.
Monica in NJ
John Voelz is a friend and innovator, so cool to see what he is doing. Thanks for keeping me up on this stuff. I agree that restricting will be more impossible as time progresses.
I just did a TwitPoll on my blog asking about the use of Twitter in Church. It was 50%/50% for and against.
The issue with cell phones is that they are more intrusive and typically communicating with someone about something else. Twitter being used to engage other people about the Word that is being delivered is incredible.
In a Faith that is so built upon “engaging” others, why would we not utilize tools that engaged those outside of the immediate walls of a conference or service?
I am all about respecting others, but the Church’s inclination to respect those who like tradition has not served it well over the years.