Can Twittering Be a Form of Worship?

Friday, 03 July 2009

Can Twittering Be a Form of Worship?
"Nothing u do 4 the Lord is in vain."
"The more I press in to Him, the more He presses me out to be useful."
"Sometimes healing is painful."
These short but inspirational blurbs are "tweets" written by Christians who wish to communicate their faith via modern technology -- during their respective worship services. Yes, it's true -- twittering during Sunday church services is accepted, encouraged, and even considered a form of worship by many pastors, according to an article in Time Magazine.
Last year, John Voelz, a pastor at Westwinds Community Church in Jackson, Mich., was tweeting at a conference outside Nashville about ways to make the church experience more creative, and as he says, to "make it it not suck." All of a sudden, the thought came to him -- Twitter!

He and his fellow pastor, David McDonald, spent two weeks giving their congregation Twitter lessons. Parishioners brought in their laptops, iPhones, and BlackBerrys, and the bandwidth in the auditorium was increased.

According to these pastors at Westwinds, Twitter serves one integral function of worship -- creating community. Twitter allows the congregants to ask questions about the sermon that the pastor will answer later, or they can tweet in real time and hope that another attendee can provide insight. Twitter can also be used as a note-taking tool in church. In other situations, the tweeting is pastor-directed: One pastor will preach while the other will tap out a question such as "In what way do you feel the spirit of God moving within you?"

There's a time and a place for technology, and many pastors still don't believe that church is that place. However, other churches are following in Westwinds' footsteps and integrating Twitter into their Sunday services.

At Next Level Church outside Charlotte, N.C., Pastor Todd Hahn encourages Twitter worship.

Hahn told his parishioners, "If God leads you to continue this as a form of worship by all means do it."

These pastors contend that as long as the Twitter chatter doesn't overshadow the need for quiet reflection that spirituality requires, it is, by all means, appropriate for worship.

Do you think twittering can be a form of worship, or do you think that church is not the time or the place for worldly technology?

recommend
recs 2
share
email
sent 0

Comments (14)

John Piper had some good thoughts about Twitter. Click here to read his short position on it.
It's all about balance. You can use technology and networking tools in healthy ways and you can use them in unhealthy ways. You can even use them in healthy ways at unhealthy times. We have to be very careful how we incorporate trends and technologies into our worship times.
- 7/3/2009 7:57 PM
- TheGreatBout@xanga (message)
- reply
certainly....I saw a twitter that was a forum for folks to pray togther...good idea I think...even the vatican has a Myspace page now...
- 7/3/2009 8:15 PM
- Gentemann@xanga (message)
- reply
this is crazy.., what about people who don't have the money to get technology? will the church provide it..? what about people around the world?
i guess this could be a form of worship.
but it's strange that people can use technology to worship especially there's parts of the world that still needs help.
i don't know, what do you think?
- 7/3/2009 8:41 PM
- UnknownJY@xanga (message)
- reply
Twitter is evil. Why would you worship over something so dastardly?
- 7/3/2009 8:48 PM
- Lisa_x09@xanga (message)
- reply
What about reverence to God can you sit quietly and wait on the Holy Spirit to speak to you if you are busy twittering? I may be old school but I think it could be a way for Satan to distract you.... And there is nothing that comes close to talking with someone face to face there is just so much more added in with facial expressions....
- 7/3/2009 9:20 PM
- doolittle73@xanga (message)
- reply
It depends if people are worshipping twitter or worshipping God through it!

What if someones phone goes off during church and distracts the service? What if people are playing games or looking at other sites during the service? I really don't know about this. Seems like it can be a bigger distraction. How about people go home and use twitter rather then doing it in church.

-Heidi
- 7/3/2009 10:48 PM
- heidi_helen@xanga (message)
- reply
@TheGreatBout@xanga - Agreed.
- 7/3/2009 11:19 PM
- FreeeVerse@xanga (message)
- reply
i agree.....twitter's evil. And sounds LAME. Only 140 characters? Sad. Sorry but I probably have more to say about God than that. I don't like twitter to begin with, so in church it's worse.
- 7/3/2009 11:39 PM
- ltl_rvr@xanga (message)
- reply
Worship should be personal, not public. It is between you and your god. When it crosses the line into public then it is attention oriented. So no. I honestly believe that twitter can not be made into a form of worship.
- 7/3/2009 11:46 PM
- morbidxshadows@xanga (message)
- reply
I guess its okay... I just don't like to see Christians turning our indulgence in materialistic technological gadgets into "worship".
Its not bad on its own... but why the heck to do we need it? Especially in times of corporate worship. Use your damn voices! Walk around and talk to people and give them your prayer requests and pray with them in person!!! Or are all you all too fat?? Save twitter and crap for the train ride home or a slow day at work. Being able to tell more people in more places more things at one time doesn't justify the lazy, impersonal-ness of it all.
I think it could be big, obese step towards laziness in worship. I'm all for it being utilized for worship beyond Church service, but why at Church? That's the dumbest crap I've heard in a while.
Why even go to Church? Just stay home and listen to your sermon podcasts and tweet about it while you get bed sores.
- 7/4/2009 12:12 AM
- subSacred@xanga (message)
- reply
In what way can twittering draw you closer to the purpose of God? I'm up for using Tech for reaching into the community, keeping up with the brethren, and sharing the gospel, but the Father is Pure and Holy and we should keep our hearts in Humble adoration of His mighty works in our lives-- my concern is that "twittering" will serve to only further remove the person, one more step further from a intimate and sincere encounter with our Holy and Soverign Father.
- 7/4/2009 12:47 AM
- deepestrecesses (message)
- reply
I'm not sure if I would call it worship, exactly...but I would consider it acknowledging God in all things...which is still very good
- 7/4/2009 3:37 AM
- TropicalOceanSunset@xanga (message)
- reply
Cheers!

@TropicalOceanSunset@xanga - i agree...

We are in a generation thats all about the visual nowadays...we can't be forever set in our ways...God is not a traditional God, so why limit our worship and acknowledgement of Him to be traditional? A simple praise may touch someone in an area of their life that we may not know...i think we can praise in 140 characters and it can make an impact in someone's life rather than view this internet device as something evil...God even said whatever was used for bad, He'll turn it for the good...So lets not judge too quickly.
Like the post.
- 7/4/2009 4:06 AM
- B_Poetic@xanga (message)
- reply
Oh Come on!
Worshiping, for heaven's sake, is not about us, it is about God! Following His
heart. "Making church nor suck" is placing humans and their needs
before God and not revere Him. Tech has it's place in Ministry but worship is
about God and Him alone. Not just quiet personal reflection. Church is about
corporate worship, where we standing for each other, worship God as a family.
It's about love care and fellowship rather than just thinking all about
yourself. Gosh! How stupid.
- 7/5/2009 8:43 AM
- christmascarols@xanga (message)
- reply

About the Author

From: Winds_of_Change
Name: Winds_of_Change
About Me: Hi, I'm Amanda. I'm an English major in the Journalism Certificate program at the University at Buffalo. I love to write, and through this Revelife blog, hope to integrate that passion with my other love, my Catholic Christian faith. I'm a big fan of Christian music...Casting Crowns, Mercy Me, Chris Tomlin, Michael W. Smith, Stephen Curtis Chapman..you name it. I sing at my churches both at home and school and am a firm believer in "He who sings prays twice." Most importantly, throughout the last few years, I've deepened in my faith and come to know that God will always be there to guide my steps. I often live by this passage and trust its message: "'For I know the plans I have for you,'" declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."' - Jeremiah 29:11