the church geek

So, for a while now I’ve been twittering, and I have come to really enjoy it. The other day, I was talking with some colleagues who don’t quite “get it.” So, I thought I’d offer a few observations from my experience. Now for those of you who don’t have any idea about what twitter is, you might want to take a look at this video.

Keeping up with blog friends:
One of the reasons I started twittering was to keep up with friends I’ve accumulated through the blog world. If a blogger I knew had a twitter feed, then I added them to my follow list. This became even more meaningful after attending our denomination’s GA and meeting some of my blog friends in person. Now I not only have a face and a voice, but through twitter I have a peek into what their life is like.

Expanding my connection to the community:
After a while, I realized that I could follow some folks locally. Using TwitterLocal I plugged in my zipcode and discovered that there were a bunch of local twitterers out there. Following them has been really fun and has helped me feel much more connected to the community than I was before. The local folks I follow vary: a bunch of them work for the Gazette, a few are Coe college students, some are techie folks, and a few are pastors too, like me.

Expanding my ministry outreach:
By no means was this my primary goal, but some of my local twitter followers have told me that they have read a sermon or two that I’ve posted on my blog. Some of these folks attend churches, others do not. Regardless, in some sense, I feel a bit of a responsibility as a ‘pastor’ to those I follow or who follow me. I like too, that folks who are not associated with a church can see me, through my twitter updates, as just an ordinary joe who also happens to be a minister. I see this as one way of breaking down the all too formidable barrier between the ’secular’ and the ’sacred.’

It’s like having your own panel of personal advisors:
So I was trying to figure out what I should buy for a surge protector - I twittered my question, and three or four friends responded with their product recommendations. I was having trouble working through a scripture passage - I twittered about it, and two or three folks responded with some suggestions and even some websites that pointed me to some ideas. It’s like being the President and having your Cabinet to turn to for the advice you need.

Finally, it’s just plain fun:
Want to know the best way to follow the presidential debates and other significant events as they unfold? Follow your twitter friends. It’s like having an instant party right in your living room. The banter and commentary on twitter as the debates raged on was just plain fun to be part of.

Try it out:
If you are interested, I re-issue Adam Walker Cleaveland’s call to try it for a month, and add me as your friend. I will tell you that you do have to work at it in order to make it worth while. You can’t just update once a day, or check your friend’s updates every other day. You’ve got to make it a regular habit.

Finally, something that makes twittering a whole lot easier and fun is to use a third party application like twhirl (it’s what I use) or tweetdeck. These applications act like instant messengers….retrieving your friend’s updates (almost instantaneously) so that you don’t have to actually go to the twitter webpage.

Go ahead, try it out!