Tweeting in Church?

I was reading an article in the June 1^st issue of Time magazine about “tweeting” at church – during the service no less. Truthfully, there may be some people who are posting messages to Twitter during our worship services. But I doubt they are tweeting about church, or even religion for that matter, and it is not incorporated into the liturgy or service. If anyone does tweet in our church, most likely they are teenagers. But at the church in Jackson, Michigan, the pastors went so far as to display the tweets on a giant screen behind the pulpit.

I see the validity in a church being on Twitter. I said as much to the communication team of our church when I was reporting what I had learned and discussed at the 2009 United Methodist Reporter (UMR) Communicator’s Conference in April. It was agreed that it was a necessary marketing outlet for the church in order to post upcoming events, activities, and prayers, etc. Church members have recently begun to gather on Facebook as a means of welcoming others into our congregation and communicating with the church family.

However, something bothered me about churches incorporating tweeting into the worship services. This feeling gnawed at me without a clear clue as to why. Having those in the congregation on Twitter respond to the service after it is over makes absolute sense. Although a chance is taken that there may be negative reactions. But encouraging the congregation to tweet during the service – even if it is not every week – seems over the top.

While I was mulling this over in the back of my mind – trying to ascertain the particular reason for my gnawing feeling – I attended the annual conference of the North Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church. The emailing back and forth between department heads and their assistants and fellow workers as ideas were presented or came to them as a result of a presentation, made sense to me. That fits the concept of the conference. [For information on the conference, see my Lay Speakers blog - with links to others' writing about the conference.]

One of those writing about the conference is my fellow lay speaker, Cynthia Astle, on examiner.com. She posted an article during the conference with the headline “Tweet, tweet: United Methodists report on Conference.” The tweets are flying fast and furiously from the floor of the North Texas Annual Conference this morning, as clergy and laity consider how they can better “make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. I was thinking about this part of the article one evening when the reason for the gnawing feeling came to me.

I seldom have a real, justifiable need for the hottest new gadgets. Which does not mean they would not be nice to own. I also seldom regret not having them. But there are times when – as a writer – I think I might be missing out. As in the case of Blackberrys, iPhones, and the like. Then I remember that I am a writer, not a journalist. My purpose is not to be the first to tell someone what happened – although it is enjoyable and fulfilling when it happens to me occasionally. My purpose is to absorb the occasion and describe it, perhaps examining it somewhat.

The gnawing feeling was caused by the slow realization that twittering, posting, and texting during events would not keep me from achieving my goal. More importantly, I think, is that a person who constantly tweets or posts cannot enjoy the full experience of the occasion. It is not possible to write and send a message while paying complete attention to what is going on around you. It is also easy to get distracted on your way to posting, wandering even farther away.

Paying attention and absorbing the atmosphere of the occasion allows me to have an overall view that the tweeters miss. Not that what they send is not relevant or worthy of note. On the contrary, many tweeters serve a unique purpose. But you may have to go through a lot of nonsense to find them.

As far as tweeting in church is concerned, missing a part of the service while tweeting is counterproductive to the purpose for attending the worship service. I understand a large number of the changes in ways of worship, but they all involve worship with one another in a holy place to feel God’s presence and praise him. But tweeting or posting takes a person out of that experience without feeling the fullness of God’s presence.  Perhaps he/she missed it while informing the online world that “the [praise] band rocks.”

Peace be with you.

Tags: Christianity, church, church family, communication team, congregation, Facebook, faith, God, Lay Speakers, life, North Texas Conference, pulpit, Religion, Time magazine, tweeting, Twitter, United Methodist Church, United Methodist Reporter, worship service, writing