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.
posted by Tim Liu at
11:45 AM
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