I'm thinking twitter can be best used for prayer requests, gospel-centered encouragement, praise alerts, and actionable notifications (vs. "what you are doing right now?" type of notices).
I've been doing it for 2 years and, although it has the potential to be a tool for self-glorification -- or on the other end, envy -- it can also be a very useful tool for staying connected to people as well as for meeting new people. I have at least 3 friends who I wouldn't know without twitter.
I would say that the most important thing is to be careful about who you follow. You don't want to be inundated with marketing or tweets about someone's awesome life or negative news or someone's rant that's really just a tease to get you to engage with them.
But if you follow good leaders (like piper or the resurgence), and connect with real people (which happens slowly over time), it can really be a great tool!
I dislike how I use Twitter. However, I love how Piper uses it and would recommend joining if only to benefit from those thought provoking, God focused tweets.
I think Piper really captures how we should approach all this "social Internet media."
Regarding current forms of media, I try to use my Facebook page largely to encourage and challenge others with the Gospel and its implications (as they encourage and challenge me). I also use the page to attempt to expose people to books, music, and other forms of art which might truly enrich their lives (such as the new Jars of Clay CD-- possibly their best yet-- far better than most of what is classified as "Christian music!").
The above is not to say that I never post silly stuff on Facebook as well. However, why not use these sorts of mediums for high ends, whenever possible? This is what Piper is doing through Twitter, and I thank and applaud him for his thoughtfulness.
I have to say that I do have some serious reservations about Twitter, in general, as I think that it can contribute negatively to our ever-shortening collective attention span. However, sometimes, short, thought-provoking bits of information can be helpful. Piper's messages on Twitter are a great example. Just don't let them keep you from reading books! :-)
yes do it. It was amazing, the majority of our staff at the Stone is on Twitter. The neighborhood that we are loving on and are going to have our building (poorest part of Austin) had a really bad fire in an apartment building. Matt (head pastor) "twittered" everyone about it and was like..."game time. let's go and be Jesus". It was a great way of communicating and getting the word out about the need. Our bass player wrote an article about it on his blog here... pretty cool. http://stevenbush.org/2009/05/04/a-devastating-fire-causes-extreme-needs-that-are-made-aware-through-twitter-met-by-christians/
6 comments:
I'm thinking twitter can be best used for prayer requests, gospel-centered encouragement, praise alerts, and actionable notifications (vs. "what you are doing right now?" type of notices).
I don't use it now, but i want to check it out...
I've been doing it for 2 years and, although it has the potential to be a tool for self-glorification -- or on the other end, envy -- it can also be a very useful tool for staying connected to people as well as for meeting new people. I have at least 3 friends who I wouldn't know without twitter.
I would say that the most important thing is to be careful about who you follow. You don't want to be inundated with marketing or tweets about someone's awesome life or negative news or someone's rant that's really just a tease to get you to engage with them.
But if you follow good leaders (like piper or the resurgence), and connect with real people (which happens slowly over time), it can really be a great tool!
Piper says you have to pick and choose your social media/distractions (he doesn't have a tv) rather than going for all or ignoring all.
So for me I'm going to limit myself to blogs & email, with the occasional look at myspace & facebook.
Hopefully that will leave some time to connect with 'real' people.
I dislike how I use Twitter. However, I love how Piper uses it and would recommend joining if only to benefit from those thought provoking, God focused tweets.
I think Piper really captures how we should approach all this "social Internet media."
Regarding current forms of media, I try to use my Facebook page largely to encourage and challenge others with the Gospel and its implications (as they encourage and challenge me). I also use the page to attempt to expose people to books, music, and other forms of art which might truly enrich their lives (such as the new Jars of Clay CD-- possibly their best yet-- far better than most of what is classified as "Christian music!").
The above is not to say that I never post silly stuff on Facebook as well. However, why not use these sorts of mediums for high ends, whenever possible? This is what Piper is doing through Twitter, and I thank and applaud him for his thoughtfulness.
I have to say that I do have some serious reservations about Twitter, in general, as I think that it can contribute negatively to our ever-shortening collective attention span. However, sometimes, short, thought-provoking bits of information can be helpful. Piper's messages on Twitter are a great example. Just don't let them keep you from reading books! :-)
yes do it. It was amazing, the majority of our staff at the Stone is on Twitter. The neighborhood that we are loving on and are going to have our building (poorest part of Austin) had a really bad fire in an apartment building. Matt (head pastor) "twittered" everyone about it and was like..."game time. let's go and be Jesus". It was a great way of communicating and getting the word out about the need. Our bass player wrote an article about it on his blog here... pretty cool.
http://stevenbush.org/2009/05/04/a-devastating-fire-causes-extreme-needs-that-are-made-aware-through-twitter-met-by-christians/
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