I know it’s a while since Saturday’s Stanley Cup final, but not only was it an exciting game, but I followed and participated in the ongoing tweets by fans of both Detroit and the Pens. It’s the first time I’ve tweeted during a live event and it was a lot of fun and an interesting experience. It was like sitting in a room full of fans, listening to their comments, reacting, giving advice to the coaches...cheering and booing appropriately.
Time magazine did an article about tweeting in church. I’m not so sure about that. While it could have some benefit by sharing thoughts and comments, it would detract from the vertical focus of worship and over-emphasize the horizontal. In the Lutheran tradition, our understanding of what goes on in a Sunday gathering of believers involves God serving us with His gifts of forgiveness and His Word, and the congregation responding in word and song. To introduce one-to-one commentary from one pew to the next is like making an aside comment while in conversation with the Queen.
Even if the pastor tweets as part of his sermon, it still creates a fragmentation because not everyone is able to receive the communication.
I’ve also seen instances where someone in the worship service gives play-by-play tweets. “Wow, the praise band is hot today” is likely a good thing, but I’m not sure what it accomplishes. Perhaps 140 character quotes from the sermon would be more worthwhile.
I am not a technophobe by any stretch of the imagination. If the audience for in-service tweeting is to those not in church, then I can see some value. But that poses another issued. I’ve done a lot of technical work during church services—directing video, working audio etc—and by so doing, I have never felt part of the service. Maybe organists feel the same way.
So what do you think? Is there a place for Twitter in Sunday activities?
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7 comments:
Hi Ian. Murray is an organist, and I've run the audio at many a church service. Murray, in particular, has mentioned many times that he feels he gets nothing out of the service when he is playing. He feels he is improving in his concentration, but still doesn't feel he got the whole experience.
Also not a technophobe, but I agree with you in that tweeting would reduce the focus to horizontal, rather than vertical.
-Kathy
I think its disrespectful to use anything even remotely related to mobile phones in a church service. Its one thing to use it at a stanley cup game, where everyone is noisy and shouting anyways. But to me it's like talking on your cellphone in the movie theatre, or at a live theatre production, only the person on stage isn't a human or a video screen, the person up there is God. It just wouldn't sit right with me at all, I don't think.
Whitefire: That would be a fair analogy if the person using the mobile device was just chatting with friends or finding out what the score of the ballgame was. But Ian's article was about tweeting ABOUT the service. In reality, making a 140 character post about a sermon is no more problematic than taking notes on said sermon. In fact, if people are reading the tweets, it is instantly part of a conversation about the sermon, which is always a good thing.
However, having said that, I'm not very big into the idea of frequent tweets in GENERAL, yet alone about a sermon or worship band (I don't know if I'll ever get used to a "worship band"), so it's definitely not for me. But if it doesn't distract other parishioners, then I see no problem with others doing so.
I know that everyone gets something different (even if it's a small difference) from a worship service, and perhaps discussion of a sermon will be beneficial or positive for that person.
P.Little: See, that's more my point. I have a general problem with people having cellphones on in any situation like that. I'm all for conversation about the sermon, but I feel that while the sermon is going on, if you're going to take notes, do it on paper or in a manner that won't have you on your cellphone. I know from personal experience that most people are very easily distracted by all of the other things inherent in electronics, and i don't find cellphones exempt from that. That being said, I do understand your point, but I don't think that twittering during the sermon is a good idea.
Using my above analogy, I don't think it matters if you're texting about the Opera to your friends if you're texting during the opera, you're still texting during the opera, and the way I was raised that still seems disrespectful to me, but then again that is a personal assumption.
If the tweets were being sent during the service, then I would rather it be a one-way communication, and not an interactive one. (ie: no discussion)
Suddenly "Pop-up Video" from Much Music comes to mind... not sure if anyone here is familiar with that.
I'm actually more curious if the power of these instant messages could be used to knit different congregations closer together.
Imagine if...members who add their mobile phone numbers / emails to a Lutheran Church-Canada list, would receive txt messages or tweets about events happening within their circuits.
"Saturday 1:00pm - 3 on 3 Basketball Tourny at St. Pauls... all are weclome! (Bring a Friend) For details ..."
-or-
"This wednesday night, 8pm - Crew Ministries @ Holy Cross - free will offering"
I dunno.. just a thought ;p
I definately see a huge possibility for the usefulness of Tweets and linking congregations, i definately think that tweeting would be a great tool. But I still just have a really difficult time with the idea of someone taking out a mobile phone during a sermon: If I can't take out my mobile phone during a movie, it's simply not going to follow that I'd be able to take it out during a sermon.
If you look at the Twitter stats, it's a very small minority of internet users who actually use the service. I think its more likely the 'keeners' who are tweeting most. Maybe we don't have to worry about tweeting in the pews as much as SMSing in the pews.
I agree with James. There are all kinds of possibilities with direct messaging, not necessarily from the service, but from a congregation or circuit.
It will be intersting to see how Twitter keeps developing or what it morphs into.
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