Social Media is a Brand New Game
I recently had a discussion with the senior pastor of a moderately large church. In the conversation he voiced his displeasure with “tweeting” comments related to the message during sermons; even if those tweets are in support of the points being made. Leaving aside for a moment that he spoke, by his own admission, from a certain amount of ignorance regarding twitter and social networking at large; by that I refer specifically to a lack of knowledge concerning the archival possibilities of using hashmarks in twitter or the spiritual implications of a “virtual amen shoutout” to friends who might be worshiping at the far reaches of the planet (a personal practice I have acquired and thoroughly enjoy). I also didn’t press him on the fact that texting can be even more efficient and less distracting than taking notes on those glossy scraps of paper provided in most bulletins, and destroys many less trees.
Regardless of our feelings toward all things social-media, the game has changed significantly. Just ask print and broadcast media outlets. It’s here folks. We can either embrace it’s power just as was done with the Gutenberg Bible or we can realize how futile the grasp of authoritarianism is just as the Chinese are learning on the 20th anniversary of Tienanmen Square.
A particular point should be considered by those that broadcast Christian content (the church led by this particular pastor is included in this group). I’ll allow the video to speak for itself on this matter. Those that don’t get this point are…well, it would be like pointing out the obvious to the oblivious.
In the interest of full disclosure I have gone on record advocating and endorsing tweeting during services: actual tweet in response to a twitter question regarding tweeting, “@gregsurrat absolutely OK to tweet in church…it’s like a virutal AMEN shout out to each other in different churches!” By the way, this particular tweet holds my personal record for the most retweets. The caveat is that the tweets should be related directly to a positive response to the sermon.
Anyway, we can either try to control the Message from a central location and become dinosaurs or we can allow the Spirit to redeem even the new media of social networking and allow the Body of Christ to finally break out of the walls of our churches just as we’ve been praying.
Again, I’ll allow the video to speak to this point.
The video that follows is part of the TED Talks series @ the State Department.
Tags: clay shirky, facebook, gutenberg bible, hashmarks, social media, TED, twitter