Seven Reasons Twitter Is Better than Church

The last few weeks I've been enjoying some conversations with fellow sojourners on this faith path of following Christ through everybody's favorite 140-character social platform, Twitter. I've really enjoyed these discussions because in many cases I have blatantly disagreed with someone else, or they have had opinions staunchly different from my own, but yet we continue to banter in a civil way which I think leaves both of us challenged, and stretched rather than feeling like one of us "won" an argument.

And that's the miracle of Twitter. Conversations that could and would never work in a live-person setting are very much the norm on Twitter. Unfortunately, these live-person settings are often our churches. I think our churches and the Church Universal has a lot to learn from social media. So here are some reasons why, in some aspects, I think Twitter is even better than Church.

1. Twitter users have no problem communicating with total strangers. Ever thought about talking to a total stranger or maybe felt like the Holy Spirit was "leading" you to but you chickened out? Maybe they looked funny, smelled funny, or there were just too many questions? Not on Twitter. Hardly any of my tweeps are people I have met in person, and I think that's normal for most Twitter users.

2. Twitter users, for the most part, are civil. Most Twitter discussions, while there may be disagreements, tend to keep a tone of "we are both here to learn from each other" rather than an "I am right, you are wrong" tenor. If only our churches could function this way, what would the church universal look like?

3. Twitter users are eager to share insights and knowledge. How many times have you read a tweet and thought "Man, that's good" and you click Retweet or you type RT, paste the message into your stream and add a quick comment? Why is the opposite true of some of our churches? Why do some believers feel that their way is the best way or the only way, to the point that they should isolate themselves from other "Christians" because of doctrinal or denominational differences?

4. Twitter users like to seek the "counsel of many". On the contrary, this often creates division in churches over silly things like picking the color of the new carpet. This scripture from Proverbs has gotten me out of more than one tight spot in my life. However, it seems that some churches that allow the whole congregation to make decisions (as opposed to boards or committees) tend to have more strife than others. And of course nothing is ever done by secret ballot. People see those opposed hands in the air and are automatically taking sides. But Twitter users usually have no problem "agreeing to disagree" and getting on with their lives.

5. Twitter users practice etiquette and give credit to those who create and/or pass on information. I was talking to a youth pastor friend of mine one time who was frustrated because he found another church online whose sermons were posted. His pastor had been preaching the exact same sermons word for word while his congregation assumed they were his own words and convictions. How do we build effective congregations if we are deceiftul in doing it?

6. Twitter users often like to teach as much as they like to be taught. What if our churches had this kind of balance? Have you ever met that know-it-all saint who is only interested in teaching rather than learning? Or have you met his arch nemesis who has a wealth of knowledge and has even demonstrated the gift of teaching in the church, but for one reason or another refuses to teach. While I know there are some pretty arrogant Twitter users who are more interested in establishing themselves as a brand name than learning from others, just about every Twitter account has at least a handful of people they follow. These are people who either have a personal connection to the user or is a person of perceived authority and is worthy of "following".

7. Twitter users seem to be real. While not every person on Twitter is authentic, many of them are. I know on my account I might share a thought about God or ministry, then a tweet about my favorite sports team, or a joke, then pass on an article I enjoyed that could be related to just about anything. Maybe some would say I'm not focused enough with my Tweets, but I would rather be myself than have an agenda. To me, a Twitter account is a peephole into someone's life that only shows what they want to be seen. But church is often not that way. We do things differently on Sunday than we do the rest of the week. We have a church persona and a non-church persona.

Let me wrap up by saying this. I love the church. And while the church isn't perfect, it is what God gave us to be his hands and feet in a fallen world. Do I really think Twitter is superior to church? Absolutely not. But do I think there are some great things about Twitter that could make the church a whole lot more effective in the world? Absolutely.

What would you add to this list? How do we make the church more civil, warm, and focused on unity?

Maintaining Balance Among the Church's Ministries

One of the first books I read early on in my ministry career was Rick Warren's "Purpose Driven Church." That book shaped not only my approach to ministry, but also that of thousands of pastors and church leaders. So I can tell, now, you are probably thinking a couple of things.

1. Purpose-Driven Ministry is so 20th century, after all, it was first published 15 years ago.

2. Why would anyone be commenting on it now when they should be commenting on something modern like "Radical" or "Crazy Love" or if the modern antiquity, "Blue Like Jazz"?

But after nearly 15 years in various types of ministry roles, I realize how much that book impacted me. If you've never read the book, in a nutshell, Warren lays out 5 purposes that each church should fulfill: worship, discipleship, fellowship, evangelism, and ministry. Every church program or event should accomplish one or more of these purposes. At the time of the books release, apparently, a lot of churches, had lost their focus in a quest to make themselves more relevant to non-believers. This model helped them give "purpose" to their ministry programs.

Here is the problem I have with that (and this is not a slam against the book or the ministry model, but deals more with my response to the model). I have found that in my ministry, I have become more intentional about accomplishing a particular purpose with each program or event I plan. What has unwittingly happened, though, is I have begun to put these programs in a box. Therefore, programs designed for fellowship are not evangelistic. Programs designed for discipleship do not allow opportunities for ministry. Programs for worship are not geared for discipleship.

So should there be overlap between our programs? Can a church worship service be designed for worship, but also equip believers (discipleship) and be evangelistic as well? I blogged a few days ago that I believe evangelism and discipleship are inseparable, and we inhibit spiritual growth when we separate the two. But are our churches likewise becoming anemic when we make a program or event so focused on accomplishing one particular purpose that we negate the other needs of the congregation? What do you think?

Has Social Media Replaced the "Church" Experience?

If you've read this blog before, you know I'm a sports fan, although most of my sports-related posts have been about baseball. But this morning, I was watching Mike & Mike on ESPN2 and they were discussing an issue with this year's NFL season as posted in an article in USA Today. Due to a number of factors, there is an anticipated increase in the number of NFL blackouts this season. A blackout occurs when a team does not sell all its tickets to a home game within 72 hours prior to kickoff, according to NFL regulations, television coverage of that game is blacked out from the local market. This gives fans (and corporations) an incentive to purchase tickets to the game.

Among the factors mentioned for the decrease in stadium attendance were poor performance by the teams, bad weather, and the economy-all which can be expected. But the one thing that struck me was technology. Thanks to HDTV technology and things like NFL Redzone (showing the highlights from all the games in real time), the argument can be made that the at-home TV NFL experience is superior to the being at the stadium with all the sights, sounds, smells, and tailgate BBQ. NFL owners have even gone to adding ridiculously large TVs (anyone been to Jerry's World just outside of Dallas?) and now will have NFL Redzone playing live at game time in each of the 31 stadiums. With the number of NFL fans playing Fantasy Football, access to scores and highlights from other games is a critical part of fan attraction.

So has the paradigm shifted? Is watching the game on TV better than being at the stadium? If this truly has taken place, what does that say about other markets that have a goal of putting people in seats...such as a church? Due to media technology, websites, and the rise in popularity of certain TV preachers, has "getting my church on at home" become easier (seemingly superior) than getting the family up, dressed, and after a 15-minute knockdown drag-out fight getting everyone loaded up in the minivan only to arrive 10 minutes late for Sunday School after the coffee and donuts have just run out and your 4-year olds shoes are still on the wrong feet? When you think about it that way, it's no wonder Joel Osteen has such a following. Has following our favorite Christian thinkers on Twitter or Facebook taken the place of showing up each week to hear a sermon from "our" pastors and church leaders?

Hebrews 10:25 says that we should not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing-but we should encourage each other, all the more as we see the day approaching. The connectibility of our world through technology has replaced the need for physical contact in some places. We all have the internet in our pockets. We all read each others tweets. We all comment to each other on Facebook. But what about "meeting together" as the writer of Hebrews instructed? Are their implications for the church in this culture shift? Do churches need to find ways to reconnect people? One culture shift is the way social media has become geographic with things like Four Square which has made the "miles away" feeling of social media become about being close in physical proximity. So is the church doing all it can to make the church experience superior to the connectivity of the Bedside Church? What can we do to improve?

The Most Important Emotion in Ministry

As anyone who works with children or youth knows, every now and then you have discipline issues in the program. This is especially detrimental when the actions of one or more students changes the behavior or feelings of one or more other students. So, as part of our attempt to get all of the students on the same page, we decided to adopt a group covenant. A couple of weeks ago, we sat down and asked ourselves as a group, "How do we want people to feel when they are here at our meetings?" And here are the responses they gave.

• Happy
• Accepted
• Loved
• Welcome
• Safe
• Comfortable

As we looked at this list, I began to notice a sort of heirarchy to these feelings. It brought to mind Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. In essence, Maslow believed (I think rightly so) that there are basic needs and more complex needs. Basic needs are things like food, water, sleep, and warmth, while complex needs are needs for security, safety, and even love. When I asked the students which feeling on the list was the most basic, they first answered "loved". After all, God is love and Christ has called us to love our neighbors as ourselves, right? But when I asked them if people could feel loved if they did not feel safe, I got a different answer. It occurred to all of us that safety is the most important feeling one should have when visiting our ministry for the first time. We should not do anything to threaten their self esteem. We should not put them down, embarrass them, or say things that would make them feel uncomfortable.

While we did this in the context of youth ministry, how does that change things if our churches were safe places? Many times first-time visitors are just thrown to the wolves. I enjoyed this blog post about how many people in churches have forgotten what it's like to visit a church for the first time. So what about you? Is your church or ministry a safe place? What things do you do to put visitors at ease? What things could you do better? Please share your thoughts in a comment.

Does the Quality of a Church effect the Commitment of its Members or Vice Versa?

Summer is winding down and our youth program is gearing up for kick-off of some fall ministries that have taken the summer off. It's been on my heart to see that our students start the year off with a deep sense of commitment to the program so that we can build some momentum to get the program rolling. So as I have thought about this the last few days, I have thought not just about our church's youth ministry, but how the principle of commitment applies to the church universal.

What is Retweet Evangelism?

I got on Twitter about 6 months ago. Twitter is an amazing tool for passing on information. Several times a day, I would read quotes from many different thinkers and think "Wow, that's good." Then, shortly after, I found that I felt this huge urge to try to be as profound as my favorite tweeps. (Since when was Christianity ever about me anyway? But I digress...). I felt I had to come up with stuff that was as philosophical as @rickwarren , @maxlucado , or @donmilleris . But what I realized is that Twitter is as much about re-tweeting as it is about being profound. Many of the Twitter accounts with huge blocks of followers have this huge following not because they are so enlightened, but because they are following people who are that way and are willing to pass that information along (RT).
This is not a lot different from sharing the gospel, is it? Take something good that's been passed on to you, and pass it along to someone else, right? I grew up in a tradition where evangelism was a big deal (and it should be). But we were always learning new "gimmicks" for sharing the gospel. I remember a T-shirt I had once that said, "Ask me. I have the Answer." "The Answer" was a gospel tract that unfolded in the shape of a cross and told people how they could put their faith in Christ. In theory, someone was supposed to read the shirt, ask me about it, and I was supposed to show them the tract and five minutes later angels would be rejoicing in heaven. I don't know if it ever worked. As I remember, every time I wore the shirt, I never had the tract with me-typical 7th grader! While these approaches aren't necessarily wrong, I have to wonder have we as a church made evangelism more difficult than it is? When Christ instructed the disciples (us) in the Great Commission, he didn't say "Come up with some new ways to communicate all of this stuff I've shared with you. Be original and profound and make people scratch their heads after you talk to them." He said, "Go make disciples, and teach them to obey everything I've commanded you." (my loose paraphrase) To be very modern, I think he might have said, "Just follow me and re-tweet." I like to call this concept "Re-tweet Evangelism."
Sharing Christ with others doesn't have to be as complicated as we make it. We've heard the words of the Master. All we have to do is re-tweet (in the real world) what's been passed on to us (and live our lives like we believe it). If you want people to follow you in life; if you want them to come to you for answers, don't feel the pressure to be original or different. Just give people Jesus. Not someone else's version of Jesus. But Jesus. Simply re-tweet.

See related post: A Different Approach to Evangelism

How Social Media Has Made Me Lazy and What it Means for the Church

Has social media changed the way people think and experience the world? In 1997 I didn't even have a computer. I was the college kid who either used the school's computer lab or mooched off my friends who did have them. I remember how the internet became this new thing and how you could set up your own free email account. I also remember how cool it was that I could type something and my friend could respond. Not only was there email, but there were websites with all kinds of information about my favorite bands, celebrities, and sports teams. Any time I wanted information about these things, I could just go to www. "thatthing" .com. And that was all well and good for another 10 years or so until the popularity explosion of social media sites, like Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter. Now my favorite bands, celebrities, and sports teams don't wait for me to come to their website, they send information to me through social media.

While this is a great way to receive information, this has made me lazy (lazier than I already was for those of you who know me). In some ways I'm content just waiting on my favorite feeds to be updated. I find myself, not going out looking for new information, but watching the stream on Twitter or Facebook waiting for new information that might be remotely interesting from someone, somewhere. And I can't help but feel that I'm not alone in this. So what has this paradigm done to the church?

1. We are so plugged into people commenting "about" scripture, that we don't consult scripture itself like we used to. Everyone seems to be concerned with being profound (and some people are or at least they retweet those who are), but in all of this profundity, sometimes we forget about the original substance of all of it-scripture. We all follow church leaders and great Christian thinkers and hang on the tidbits of wisdom they have to share, but what about scripture? I'm not saying that mega-church pastors and authors shouldn't be followed, but we get so excited about something Francis Chan or Rick Warren said, all the while our Bible is sitting on our desk (I'm convicted as I type this).

2. People may be decreasingly seeing the need to attend church as we know it because so much spiritual fodder is delivered right to their favorite tech toy. While the world may come to our fingertips through social media, the gospel demands that we "go." Christianity is proactive. So for the church leader, we must still find ways to impact the world. For the lay person, it means continuing to attend church and being involved as a spiritual discipline, rather than waiting for the kingdom of God to manifest itself through your Blackberry.

3. One-sided monologue sermons may be losing their luster as people are enamored with the interactive "reply/comment" nature of social media. Whether or not the Sunday sermon is becoming a thing of the past remains to be seen, but I do think that many churches are taking strides to explore different models for their services in an attempt to stay culturally relevant. Many pastors are using their Twitter accounts to put out sermon teasers in the days leading up to Sunday, while others are even tweeting during the sermon.

What trends have you seen as social media has impacted people and the church? Do you think things are changing or do you think while some things change, some things are here to stay?

Smoking, Church, and Habits

A new series of anti-smoking TV commercials are quite poignant. One depicts a lady mixing a drink at work before her smoke break and says "You don't drink every time you smoke, so why do you smoke every time you drink?" Another one uses the same concept with a guy running around with a cigarette looking for a car to drive. He eventually jacks a courier truck and takes it for a spin while the narrator proposes "You don't drive every time you smoke..."

Bad habits, we know, are hard to break. While good habits are hard to start. And they're even harder if we don't see fast results. I've been going to church for just about my entire life. I can't say that there's been a time when I wasn't a part of some congregation. There were times during college where I might have stayed at school for a few weekends and wound up not going, but for the most part, every season of my life has included some regular house of worship. Before you accuse me of bragging, let me very clear. There have been plenty of times in my life where I did not feel close to God--I was just still in church during those times-sometimes because I was literally getting paid to be there. I can recall the Sundays after tragedy struck my life where I was particularly unenthusiastic about going to church. For some of these times, I was on staff, so my paycheck required I attend. For others, I just plain didn't want to go, but somehow made myself go. Sometimes I just didn't go at all.

At the end of last week, I found out that my sister-in-law had passed away in Indiana from ovarian cancer and the funeral would be on Monday. Cindy (my wife) and I decided Friday night to drive up there with her mother for the funeral. Since my wife gets car-sick if she doesn't drive and my mother-in-law insisted on taking her car, I spent the last 3 days riding in the back seat of a Dodge Neon catching up on my reading. One book I read was "My Jesus Year" by Benyamin Cohen. The book is a memoir of the Orthodox Jewish author's 52-week journey into all things Christian-various churches, concerts, Christian festivals, and even celebrating Christmas-in an effort, not to convert to Christianity, but to learn more about his faith in God and Judaism.

One of his final experiences in this year-long experiment is going to confession at a Catholic church. He tells of going into the booth "undercover", and shares with the priest how he feels disconnected from his faith and how he hasn't been getting much out of the services. The father encourages him to attend services more regularly saying, "Even if you don't understand it now, just come to the services anyway, because eventually it will have meaning for you." Then the author comments how he was reiterating a Jewish concept known as Shelo lishmah bah lishmah-even if you do something for the wrong reasons, you'll eventually start doing it for the right reasons.

I think that is true of a lot of things in life, especially going to church. I don't know where I'd be if certain times in my life weren't accompanied by a staff job at a church that required my church attendance. And that habit has sustained me at times when I didn't realize it. Making ourselves go to church sometimes is hard, especially when we have to ask ourselves why we do it. But even if we don't know why we come, there is value to coming...and sometimes it just takes time to see that.

Where's the Love?

This weekend, I was driving to a friend's church to lead worship for a Good Friday service. On the way, I saw a motorcycle rider on a sport bike--a small, brightly-colored bike built for speed-- quickly wave at a passing biker who was riding a cruiser--a Harley-styled bike with lots of chrome and loud pipes built for enjoying the open road. Two strangers on completely different types of bikes who were bound by one common bond--the love of having two less wheels underneath them than the average highway vehicle. As I saw that, I thought back to my days a few years ago when I had a Jeep Wranger TJ. Before I bought the Jeep, I took it for a test drive and noticed that as I passed other Jeep drivers they would wave. Not just a small wave either, but a bold wave. If they were in all-out Jeep mode and the windows or top were down or they would stick their arm out the window as a way of saying, "Hey, you're cool because you drive a Jeep!" For the next year, I enjoyed those waves and feeling like I was a part of something special, until I realized that although I loved my Jeep, it just didn't have the room I needed for the things I wanted to do. So I got a pick-up.

Fast forward to last week. A friend of mine was telling me that someone had basically told him he was not a Christian. He was in a convenience store and offered to buy a stranger's drink as a gesture of Christian love. When he told the stranger that Jesus loved him, the stranger asked him if he was a Christian. As the conversation went on, this particular individual went on to say that my friend was not a Christian because he was a part of a different Christian denomination than his own and that Christ never intended for there to me so many different churches. Acknowledging that he would pray for his new acquaintence, my friend walked out of the store.

Is this what we've come to? Are we really in a world where bikers and Jeepsters share a common bond and Christians just fight over our doctrinal differences? Maybe we've gotten too complacent. In the first century, the persecuted Christians would carve part of a fish symbol in the dirt and when the drawing was completed by the other individual, they celebrated their kindred spirit. Now we have these same fish symbols on bumper stickers, chrome car emblems, t-shirts, tattoos, earrings, necklaces, name tags, business signs, door knockers, and who knows what all else, and what do we do with it? We accuse one another of not being "saved" because someone goes to a different kind of church. In John 17, Jesus is praying a final prayer for his followers (both the ones of that day and the ones that were yet to be) before he endures the pain of the cross. Here is what he says.

20"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me." God help us to be more unified!

Being the Body

Last week, I was nonchalantly walking down a sidewalk at our church paying no mind to the fact that some roofers had cleaned up just a couple of days earlier from the job they'd done on our church buildings. No less than 10 kids ran up the sidewalk right in front of me on their way to our Tuesday afternoon tutoring class. But as I walked, all of a sudden, I felt a sharp, excruciating pain shoot through the bottom of my foot, right on the smooth skin beneath my 4th and 5th toes. I literally thank God that I had the presence of mind to stop mid step before my foot went all the way to the ground with the full weight of my body on top of it. Somehow, I was able to catch myself, and quickly sit down leaving about 1/8" of the nail sticking out the bottom of my shoe. I'm also thankful I was wearing a pair of Wolverine chukka boots that day and not the Crocs I often wear to the office. A couple of band-aids and a tetanus shot later I was limping home, back to my daily routine.

The amazing thing is, though, how much that small puncture wound affected the rest of my body. I found that walking on my heel was much more comfortable than putting down the front of my foot. I also found that walking on my heel was much more comfortable if I was wearing a loose-fitting shoe, so I found myself wearing the aforementioned Crocs around the house. This very small injury caused me to walk in a completely different manner and actually develop muscle soreness in some different areas of my body.

As I pondered my "gimpy" state, I thought of Paul's teachings on the body of Christ. My favorite passage on this is I Corinthians 12. In this passage he says, "parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indespensible, and parts that we think are less honorable, we should treat with special honor."

How many of our churches are deficient in many areas because the people who should be doing the minstry of a "hand" or "eye" are to busy trying to be a "foot" or an "ear." When my foot was sore, my body did not have balance and control. It was inefficient. I have a feeling that's what some of our churches look like when we don't have enough people doing certain things in the body.

5 Things to Help Your Transition with a New Pastor

Recently, my church got a new pastor. This was my first such transition in the United Methodist Church. Quite literally, I had one pastor on Thursday, and by Sunday morning I had a new one. I've served several churches as a youth director...some were churches where we had an interim period between pastors. Either way, these are some things I've learned as a church staff member that have helped in each of these transitions and hopefully they can help you.

1. Dont compare your new pastor to your old one. If you really liked your former pastor and got along with him well, don't immediately look to find the flaws in your new pastor or expect him to do things exactly like his predecessor. Likewise, if you did not get along well with your former, do not automatically assume things will be the same way with the new guy. Don't get caught up in playing the comparison game. This will only put him in a box in your eyes and limit your perceptions of the effectiveness of his ministry.

2. Be helpful. Chances are that your pastor moved in from a new community. One of the easiest things you can do to build a positive relationship with him is to help him get oriented to your community and the church. Let him know where he can go in town to get things done or who you would recommend for various professional services or where the good places are to eat. Also, let him know who the key leaders are in the church and also which members he should approach with more caution.

3. Focus on his strenths. Every pastor has a completely different make-up of strengths, weaknesses, and spiritual gifts. More likely than not, your new pastor will not be as skilled as your previous pastor in some areas. However, there will be many things that he may do better than his predecessor. Be on the lookout for those qualities. Learn from the way he does things then you can do tip number 4!

4. Be positive with your church members. Being on staff, many members of the church will follow your lead in determining whether or not they will get on board with the ministries of a new pastor. Often times they will ask how the ministry is going under the new leadership. If our previous pastor was admired by many church members, the more we say, "Well, he's not like _____", inadvertently we are destroying the ministry of our new pastor before it ever really gets started. Find some of the strengths he has and build him up to your church members. This will help them get on board with what God is doing through him in your church.

5. Be a team player. Help your pastor know that you are here as a spoke in a much larger wheel and that you see the youth program as a vital part of the church. Many youth programs are run as a kingdom unto themselves rather than as a part of the church as a whole. Letting him know that you want the youth involved in all the ministries of the church, not just the ones for teenagers, helps him to see that you are here to build the church with him, not to be divisive.

What things have you done to build a relationship with a new pastor? What lessons have you learned?

Starting a blog

Well, as a child of the late 20th century, I've been one of those people who likes to think and talk with a keyboard in my hands. So, I've started a youth ministry blog where I hope to share some thoughts on things that have happened and are happening in my ministry, as well as successes and failures for the benefit of anyone who may be out there reading.

I currently contribute to a blog at http://www.forkintheroadmusic.org which is a blog site for my friend Russell Martin. This is a blog site dealing with thoughts on worship, leading worship, working with youth bands, and other related material. I will continue to contribute to FITR as well as post some more general ministry related material on this site. I hope you will check back or subscribe to this post.