Texting, Twitter, and the Church

As we see the way we communicate and process information changing daily, should the church change the way it communicates too? A number of churches are now using texting and twitter in service to foster interactive communication and worship. This Christianity Today article looks at how some churches are doing it and its strengths and drawbacks.

Mars Hill receives SMS questions during the service and Pastor Mark Driscoll responds to them.

"The first week we tried this, the sermon was about sex," he says, "and a woman who was pregnant as a result of rape asked if she could have an abortion. I answered her anonymous question, we stopped to pray as a church, and we followed up with her for pastoral care. As a result, she did not have the abortion she was planning and a life was spared."

However churches must be discerning about how they use it.

"We have to teach people to use it well," [Bruce Reyes-Chow] says. "If churches aren't taught to use it well, it can be a distraction—and then it becomes harmful to the church community."

We recently had a church snow day, so I was able to catch an online church service. There was an ongoing live chat window during the service where people were able to interact throughout the service. I found it both helpful and distracting. One woman commented that this was her first time "in" church in 17 years. Others were asking questions about the sermon.

But there was also a point where the discussion degenerated into spectatorship. There were some saying how much they like the pastor or whether or not they liked the particular worship song. I could see this same thing happening in a church, if the interactive elements were not used wisely. John Piper's comments address this problem:

"I think you should use Twitter before and after corporate worship to say what you take in and take out," Piper adds. "But when you are in corporate worship, worship! There is a difference between communion with God and commenting on communion with God.

Things I Can Live With (And one I can’t)

 

If they come, decide it's not for them, and leave, let them say: 
I wasn't a good enough speaker,
that I wasn't dynamic enough or conversational enough,
that I wasn't cool enough,
that I wasn't as engaging as the guy down the street,
that my shirt didn't match my socks,
that I wasn't wearing socks.

Let them say our band wasn't big enough,
or rockin' enough,
or hip enough,
or loud enough.
Heck, let them say it was too loud.

Let them say our group isn't big enough,
that our people aren't enough like them,
that our people are too much like them,
that there's not enough girls or not enough guys,
that we don't play games or have cool videos or enough special music.

Let them say we're too far away,
that we meet at an inconvenient time,
that we don't fit in their schedule,
that we don't have enough social activities.

I can live with all that and more.

But if they leave, if they decide it's not for them, never let them be able to say we didn't talk about Jesus.

Damn me if anyone is able to say that with any integrity.
And the other edge of that sword is:

If they leave because we talk about Jesus too much, I can live with that.

via Jared Wilson author of “Your Jesus is Too Safe”

Death of the Bulletin

This church took an interesting step in eliminating the weekly bulletin and replacing it with a monthly version. This not only cut printing costs, but forced leaders to be more organized in their planning and efficient in communication.

Sometimes its hard to let go of "we've always done it this way," but often doing so leads to innovation, if even in the smallest of ways.

What could the church do with 1 million dollars?

A few years back, when Francis Chan's church was booming in membership and budget, they were planning on a new $20 million dollar building project for a new sanctuary. However, one of the church's core values was modeling Christ's love for the poor. They came to the conclusion that it would be dishonoring to God to spend so much on a building when people around the world were in need.

They finally decided to build an outdoor amphitheater for much less than a huge worship facility. The reasoning was that in Southern California, the weather is beautiful most of the year, and on days with bad weather, people would be reminded of the suffering of those around the world. Today the church gives upwards of 50% of it's multi-million dollar income to the needy through organizations such as Children's Hunger Fund.

This video was made to explain their decision to the church. I've never been a big fan of mega-churches, but something about this reminds me that this is how church is supposed to be.



More about the building project.

Austin's 'emergent' Christians finding a new path

I was surprised and encouraged to see this article featuring Vox Veniae Church in Austin, TX about how they are breaking from traditional church expressions and innovating to bring the Gospel to the community. Even more interesting is that the church originally began as a church plant off of a traditional Chinese Baptist church in Austin. It's even more interesting because I started listening to Gideon Tsang on podcast about a year ago, he's a really good preacher, one of my favorites to hear.

The son of a Chinese missionary, Tsang, 33, grew up in Canada, attended an evangelical seminary in Illinois and eventually landed at Austin Chinese Church — a North Austin congregation made up mostly of immigrants from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan — where he led a ministry for college students called Liquid. That grew into Vox Veniae, which formed last year with a core of middle-class students and young professionals who, like Tsang, longed "to be the hands and feet of Christ in Austin."

Vox members have now bought or are renting six homes in the predominantly black and Hispanic neighborhood, driven by a desire to share their resources by living among people who have less. Vox members hope to set up computer training classes, teach kids to build bikes and work as mentors in nearby public schools.

"It's all grace," Tsang said. "What we receive, we now have to give back."

Hip-Hop Liturgies

Popular Christian music styles have always paralleled the sound of secular hits, from grunge to techno. Now hip-hop is finding its way into the liturgies of traditional churches. The white, middle-aged Rev. Timothy (Poppa T) Holder doesn't look like someone who would shout "Holla back!" in his priestly blessing. But, noticing the power and ubiquity of rap in his South Bronx neighborhood, Holder created a hip-hop mass in his Trinity Episcopal Church of Morrisania. Now he wants to help other churches get in the act, and has devised a hip-hop service for the more buttoned-up St. Paul's Chapel of Trinity Church.

Don't miss the video. Its kinda funny, but still pretty darn cool. I have nothing but respect for those who are daring enough to break out of long established ways of doing ministry in trying to reach new cultures and communities.

A Christian Influence?

An encouraging article about the influence of Christianity on the US. Though analysts like Barna are often helpful in spurring the church on to more action, articles like this remind us that God is in fact doing things in the US after all.