We’ve talked a lot about Twitter lately and some of you are probably wondering what Twitter might look like inside the church. Well, here’s a real live example of using Twitter during a church service.
They ran the Twitter feed on the big screen and encouraged people to take part. Some people loved it, some people hated it, some people didn’t care. It did give those who weren’t physically present a chance to take part and the tweets ranged from light banter to theological reflection.
Some of the positive response included comments like, “I felt like part of what was happening,” “I felt part of the community” and “I felt like it was more than just about me.”
Organizer John Voelz said: “Bottom line, it is worth it to try these kinds of things. Out of this experience, we came up with a list of 20 other ways to use Twitter.” (link via michaelhyatt)
Jesse Gavin
June 4, 2008
About 6 years ago I was at a worship conference at Willow Creek and they talked about doing something very similar with KIOSKS in the rear of the sanctuary which were then displayed on the screen in the service. – Same idea (minus web 2.0)
b/
June 5, 2008
Wow, freakin sweet. I’m a pastor at a church in Auburn, AL and one of two people on staff that tweets. The rest of them don’t grab at technology like we do. We also have two other guys in the church that are twits.
I sent this post to them and got a reply from one that said doing twitter during a service gave him goose bumps. It moved him.
John Voelz
June 5, 2008
Hey, Kevin. Thanks for the post. I will be posting other updates on my blog about how we are trying Twitter. New ideas surface every day it seems. We are having fun with it. We will do another segment with Twitter live in Fusion this weekend as well–instead of the entire service it will be during a 10 minute reflection time with questions on the screen. Check back at my blog and I will share the ups and downs. I appreciate what you are doing here.
John Voelz
June 5, 2008
I just put your banner on my blog (left column below the “about me” section) Thanks for the good work and your commitment to this for the past few years.
Joshua Cody
June 10, 2008
@John Thanks a lot for your support!
Carla
July 5, 2009
I personally think this Twittering in churches has gone too far, it’s just too much information that can take up too much of your day. We were recently contacted with what we thought was a better alternative to Twitter by a company in Phoenix, AZ that is called MCJC Ventures, LLC. They offer and provide an existing “texting” platform to get one daily text message out to our church’s donors and members. I called the company back (480) 236-9272 and asked them about it, they gladly sent me some information on it. I asked them if they have any churches currently using their texting platform and they told me Creflo Dollar Ministries and Jamal Bryant Ministries (but mainly megachurches in the Phoenix area) that have been using it for some time now. They charge each donor or “subscriber” as he put it $4.99/mo. to get a daily custom text message directly from the church (news, events, etc.) and the church gets a good portion of that back in donation revenue. He said many churches are dumping Twitter for this platform because they can control the daily message much better than on Twitter AND drive revenue back to them. Could this be the new technology to increase a church’s revenues? Probably. Anyone else heard about this?
Carla
R. McIntyre
September 27, 2009
I have some interesting information about MCJC Ventures if anyone would like an inside scoop on how this company operates.