"Should We Use Twitter During Church?"

From: http://www.joshharris.com/2009/05/should_we_use_twitter_during_c.php:

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While I personally enjoy Twitter and find it to be a useful tool for sharing and receiving information, I'm not excited about encouraging people to use Twitter during the Sunday meeting. This isn't to pass judgment on pastors who do encourage its use and I'm happy to hear evidence that it adds spiritual benefit, but here are a few reasons why I won't be encouraging the members of Covenant Life Church to Twitter during the meetings. I'll apply this to myself:

1. Playing with my iPhone (or cell phone or Blackberry) during the sermon will likely distract me. I'll be tempted to check my email or read my Twitter feed that has nothing to do with the sermon.

2. Even if I didn't look at anything else, the mere act of "tweeting" some quote or question or thought from the sermon would be several minutes in which I wasn't actively listening to the sermon. Brain space would be taken up with typing and getting my word count under 140. God's word preached is so important, so precious, I don't want anything to distract me from hearing it. What if those two minutes in which I'm distracted are the two minutes my soul needs the most?

3. The most important thing I can do while I'm sitting under the preaching of God's word is to listen to what God is saying to me. I need to actively engage my heart and mind to receive. Twitter, takes the focus off of hearing and receiving and and makes it broadcasting and sharing. So instead of my mind being engaged with thoughts of "What is the Word of God saying to me?" when I start "tweeting" my focus becomes, "What do I want to say? What do I want to express? What am I thinking?"

4. I think we all need to ask what our example says to other people we're worshiping alongside. Can a person look at me during the worship and see from the way I sit, listen and engage that the Bible is worthy of honor, that preaching is valuable? Of course this applies to a lot more than the issue of Twitter. If I'm nodding off to sleep, reading the bulletin, staring off into space or filing my finger nails it can send the wrong message, too. So what does someone think if they see me playing with my cell-phone during the sermon? "Oh, he must be so enamored with the truth of God's word that he's using Twitter to share the truth he's just heard with the world! God, your word is glorious!" Uh, I really don't think so. They'll probably think, "I should pull out my phone...wonder if I've gotten any email."

5. Just because something is incredibly popular in culture doesn't mean we have to accommodate it in our worship. Who cares if the whole world is talking about Twitter?
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Read more: http://www.joshharris.com/2009/05/should_we_use_twitter_during_c.php.