The Theology Of Twitter
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Three Challenges for the Church Engaging Social Media
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The Theology Of Twitter
- 5. The Internet is ...
- 6. or ... ?
- 7. 3 Theological Challenges for the Church
- 8. Challenge #1: Be “reverse incarnational”
- 9. Proclamation
- 12. Why do people visit the pastor’s bio page more often than any other single page?
- 13. New media
- 14. Game changer
- 15. Challenge #2: Maintain the physical in the sacramental
- 17. Liturgy » Magic?
- 19. Challenge #3: Promote counter-cultural spiritual practices
- 22. The church that tweets together, stays together.
- 23. @Twitturgies
- 25. Unplug
Notes de l'éditeur
- Who am I? Former Internet Ministry Manager for Billy Graham Former Web Content Editor for Emergent Village Currently International Communication Coordinator for SIM (Serving In Mission) My biases: I am pro-social media (I’ve drunk the Kool-Aid) But I understand the pitfalls, as well
- Source: http://twitter.com/chrisbrogan/statuses/3054873504
- “ For the Church the new world of cyberspace is a summons to the great adventure of using its potential to proclaim the Gospel message. This challenge is at the heart of what it means at the beginning of the millennium to follow the Lord's command to 'put out into the deep': Duc in altum! (Luke 5:4).” —Pope John Paul II, “Internet: A New Forum for Proclaiming the Gospel” (Sunday, May 12, 2002) Source: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/messages/communications/documents/hf_jp-ii_mes_20020122_world-communications-day_en.html Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sydandsaskia/371882341/
- "The Internet is yet another communications technology that can be used by the church to get the message out in a compelling and relevant way. But this technology has a difference: it not only allows us to communicate on a global yet intimate scale, but it also allows us to 'inhabit' a virtual environment and create disembodied communities. ... CONTINUED NEXT SLIDE
- "The Internet is yet another communications technology that can be used by the church to get the message out in a compelling and relevant way. But this technology has a difference: it not only allows us to communicate on a global yet intimate scale, but it also allows us to 'inhabit' a virtual environment and create disembodied communities. ... “We use the Internet, as a tool, and yet we also inhabit the Internet, as a space, a community. ... Many in the church will continue to insist that the Internet is simply a 'tool' rather than a place where community happens, and therefore will miss the chance to meaningfully participate in the growing community of online believers and seekers." Source: Andrew Careaga, author of "e-Ministry" (Kregel, 2001) Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/raftwetjewell/3488949599/
- “ Cardinal encourages praying by Twitter” April 27, 2009, The Independent (UK) http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/cardinal-encourages-praying-by-twitter-1674861.html Young Christians should send daily prayer messages by text, Twitter or email, Ireland’s leading Catholic churchman said yesterday. Cardinal Sean Brady was speaking yesterday in Attymass, Co Mayo, where he unveiled a status to the world-famous ‘Rosary priest’, Fr Patrick Peyton, who was born there 100 years ago. Fr Peyton was renowned for his saying: “The family that prays together, stays together.” And Cardinal Brady — Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All-Ireland — said that the principle should now be transferred to 21st-century technolo gies. “In th e name of Fr Peyton, I appeal to every Christian in Ireland today who sends texts, Twitters or uses e-mail to think about setting up groups of prayer between you and your friends using these modern means of communication,” said the cardinal. “ I ask young people in particular to think of sending their friends and family an occasional Twitter or text to say that you have prayed for them.” The cardinal predicted that such a sea of prayer would strengthen a national sense of solidarity with one another, especially for families suffering hardship in the current economic recession. Calling for a return to the traditional practice of saying the Rosary, the cardinal said it would advance the cause of peace in the family right across this island. “Try prayer — it works,” he added.
- "To minister effectively to this age we must become creative in our communication! We must become flexible. While principles do not change, strategies must. Paul says to us in I Corinthians 9:22, 'We must become all things to all men so that by all possible means we may save some.' The motor vehicle gear that takes us effectively over the plain will not take us over the hill. The clothes for summer will not do for winter. There is a Tower of Babel out there demanding of us creativity and excellence. ... No matter how much we baptize mediocrity and outdated traditions, they will not regain their utility in the highly competitive, rapidly changing, inter-active computer culture of the 21st century." —Gerry O. Gallimore, "The Evangelist Communicates Effectively," Amsterdam 2000 Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/timsamoff/536143522/
- “ Effective evangelism on the Internet requires believers to do a bit of 'reverse incarnation.' We must enter the culture of cyberspace and dwell among its inhabitants, in essence becoming 'incarnational' in cyberspace (even though we are leaving our bodies -- our 'carnals' -- behind). We need to take John 1:14 -- 'the word became flesh and dwelled among us' -- and turn it inside out, so that we flesh-and-blood Christians become words in cyberspace and dwell among others in the cyber environment. “ For this to happen, the church on the Internet must be about more than just slapping up a static web page. The church -- and by this I mean believers of all stripes -- must actively engage in the cyberculture through the more interactive avenues of instant messaging, chat, blogs, online communities ... At the same time, the church must always be incarnational. Cyberspace does not replace physical space. Cyberpresence does not replace physical presence." —Andrew Careaga, “e-Ministry” Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/timsamoff/536143522/
- “ The Internet is all about having conversations and engaging one another. Step into a chat room and see how people are truly connecting with one another. (Sure, it'll feel disorienting the first few times, but stick with it.) If we understand that the 'tech' of the Internet is really a medium for connecting with others in very real and intimate ways, then we will grasp the idea that we really can have something similar to 'f2f' [i.e. face to face] relationships fostered via cyberspace. “ I like what my friend Jim Hendersen [of Off The Map] says, we become 'Christian consultants' or 'spiritual consultants' to our friends. Not salesmen. Not preachers. Not manipulators or broadcasters. We're friends, and we make ourselves available as consultants or guides to people in their spiritual journey. “ I often say ... that the essential thing is ‘to count conversations more than conversions.’ If we are always trying to convert people, we'll shortchange conversations -- with all their questions and twists and turns and ups and downs -- and as a result, conversions won't happen. But if we focus on asking good questions and keeping conversations going, conversions naturally occur.” Source: Brian McLaren
- “ Why do people visit the pastor’s bio page more often than any other single page? It’s simple, people want to get to know more about them; they want that connection; they want to know the man (or woman) behind the wisdom they receive. “Long before blogging made it accessible, people were already looking to establish some connection with a spiritual guide. As with everything, in both faith and business, it comes down to establishing a connection. “ The development of social media, starting with blogging, now moving to Facebook or Twitter, brings a more authentic glimpse into the life of those spiritual guides to connect with. Our need now is to share our spiritual lives with others. Today, wherever people are, there is an opportunity to connect in conversation and relationship.” —Gavin Richardson, “Spirituality and Social Media: Blogging Toward Enlightenment” Source: http://www.lifewithoutpants.com/spirituality-and-social-media/spirituality-and-social-media-blogging-towards-enlightenment/
- “ Many people of faith, my christian faith especially, seem to forget how original faith was practiced in the days they nostalgically hold onto. For many years in my youth people would say that you needed to read the bible in its original Hebrew or Greek to understand its real meaning. This was in part because people constantly swore by the King James bible, a middle century english translation that has been around for 400 some years. What people forget in all this, is the insinuation that dwelling on God’s word is about you and your individual experiences . In fact, if you wanted to get back to learning from the early days of your faith, language isn’t the biggest change. You need to go to the town square or the temple (whatever you have) and trade stories about God, your ancestry, prophets, and make sacrifices. Maybe then you’d get lucky that the one sacred book maybe Psalms or Exodus would be brought out for all to hear a reading. You see, technologically, the greatest item to change the way we’ve lived out our faith is not PowerPoint or video, guitars or keytars , Twitter or vot ing , but th at mod ern 1400’s invention of the printing press . ... “ I might put forth some of the argument that the rising of social media/web 2.0 and the continued interweavings & collision of people on the Internet could turn a reversal to actual some similar experiences of hearing, conversing, teaching, and living out ones faith expression as was done before the technological advance of the printing press. This could be a perfect partner or a fabulous enemy to faith. “ Think about where you meet people now. I might say Twitter & Facebook could be your daily trip to temple or town green to meet people, find out how they are living their lives, and entertain a teaching or question. Blogging could be your Quaker style preaching, listening/reading a message and taking an opportunity to challenge & question. Blogging & video are ways to hear testimonies, stories of faith that you might never have received before because you were at home doing your own study and own reflections. “ So as I’ve come to look at it all ... how do we harken back to the origins of how our faith was practiced with mediums that could never have been conceived of back in the day?” —Gavin Richardson, “Spirituality and Social Media: Blogging Toward Enlightenment” Source: http://www.lifewithoutpants.com/spirituality-and-social-media/is-twitter-the-new-town-square-an-introduction-to-spirituality-and-social-media/ Image: Gutenberg’s printing press
- “ The distance afforded by printing gives us the ability to act without reacting ... When objectivity is taken to its extreme, it leads to the belief that we can read and discover biblical truths with an unbiased clarity of vision. We presume the Bible presents an objective set of propositions that everyone will discover if they just read it properly. This inflated sense of objectivity, fueled by printing, breeds an unfortunate and arrogant illusion of omniscience. It leaves little room for subjective experience and the work of the Holy Spirit.” Source: Shane Hipps, The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture , p. 55 (Zondervan, 2005) Image: Gutenberg’s printing press
- A short paper published in June 2009 on the blog of Mark Brown, an Anglican priest, CEO of the New Zealand Bible Society, and the founder of the Anglican Cathedral in Second Life: “ An avatar can receive the bread and wine of the Eucharist within the logic of the virtual world and it will still be a means of grace, since God is present in a virtual world in a way that is suitable for its inhabitants. We may expect that the grace received by the avatar will be shared in some way by the person behind the avatar, because the person in our everyday world has a complex relationship with his or her persona.” Source: Rev. Prof. Paul S. Fiddes, “Sacraments in a Virtual World?”, http://brownblog.info/?p=886
- “ Baptism, immersion into the Christian community, the body of Christ, and hence into the nature of God the Holy Trinity may have some internet equivalents – for example, being welcomed into a moderated group. But my own current position would be to shy away from, for example, having a virtual baptism of a second life avatar. Nor would I celebrate Eucharist and other sacraments in the virtual world. Sacraments are outward and visible signs – the virtual world is still very much at the inner and invisible level. Similarly, in my opinion, placing unconsecrated bread and wine before a computer or television screen and understanding this to result in consecration tends away from the liturgical understanding of the Eucharist (liturgy = work of the people/ something done by a community) towards a magical understanding of the Eucharist (magic = something done to or for an individual or community).” Source: Rev. Bosco Peters, “Virtual Eucharist?” (a response to Fiddes), http://www.liturgy.co.nz/blog/virtual-eucharist/1078
- “ What is lacking in this understanding of the Eucharist, and Fiddes hints at it himself when he writes that the Eucharist performed virtually is "an extension of the church sacraments," thus separating the virtual sacrament from the physical sacrament of the Eucharist. Physicality is the key here, for the bread and wine of the Eucharist are properly a symbol of the incarnation to all of us, as it is both spiritual and physical food. Part of the problem with an understanding of virtual worlds is that they are too often equated with the spiritual or supernatural world, because they are both unseen or "other-ly" worlds, but this is dead wrong. The spiritual world we live in is extra-dimensional, in the sense that it is real but beyond us in many ways, whereas the virtual worlds of computers are simulations: extensions of our own physical world and are never "other" by any ways or means other than what Tolkien called suspended disbelief. We enter into virtual worlds like we enter into novels or movies. “ The spiritual world meets the physical world in the Eucharist, and as such the physicality of the sacrament is what makes it sacramental. Just as Christ was fully man and fully God, so to is our experience of the sacraments: it is both fully divine, a gift from God, and fully physical, prepared from dust to dung to fertilizer to seed to plant to crop to harvest and then to bottle, or then for bread from harvest to millstone to flour to dough to oven to loaf. Hands touch these things, the weather and the climate touch these things. Truckers and shippers and boxers touch all these things. The Eucharist is a feast of new creation, of our salvation, and this must be always held before us as an immensely physical happening. N.T. Wright can only sound the alarm so many times that heaven is not a disembodied place but instead a real, physical New Earth and New Heavens. Going down the road of Fiddes thinking separates physicality from the sacraments and begins to blur the lines between spirituality and virtuality.” Source: Thomas Turner, “Virtual Sacraments? I Beg to Differ”, http://everydayliturgy.com/blogs/thomas/virtual-sacraments-i-beg-to-differ
- “ At Next Level Church, outside Charlotte, N.C., it's not only O.K. to fuse social-networking technology with prayer; it's desirable. “ On Easter Sunday, pastor Todd Hahn prefaced his sermon by saying, ‘I hope many of you are tweeting this morning about your experience with God.’ “‘ It’s a huge responsibility of a church to leverage whatever's going on in the broader culture, to connect people to God and to each other,’ says Hahn. “ If worship is about creating community, Twitter is an undeniably useful tool. The trick is to not let the chatter overshadow the need for quiet reflection that spirituality requires.” Source: “Twittering in Church, with the Pastor’s O.K.”, TIME magazine, May 3, 2009, http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1895463,00.html See also: “Twitter in Church: Yes or No? The Conversation Continues ...” http://churchcrunch.com/2009/07/06/twitter-in-church-yes-or-no-the-conversation-continues/
- See also: “Twitter Theology: 5 Ways Twitter Has Changed My Life and Helped Me Be a Better Disciple of Jesus” by Leonard Sweet, http://www.leonardsweet.com/article_details.php?id=55
- “ Cardinal encourages praying by Twitter” April 27, 2009, The Independent (UK) http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/cardinal-encourages-praying-by-twitter-1674861.html Young Christians should send daily prayer messages by text, Twitter or email, Ireland’s leading Catholic churchman said yesterday. Cardinal Sean Brady was speaking yesterday in Attymass, Co Mayo, where he unveiled a status to the world-famous ‘Rosary priest’, Fr Patrick Peyton, who was born there 100 years ago. Fr Peyton was renowned for his saying: “The family that prays together, stays together.” And Cardinal Brady — Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All-Ireland — said that the principle should now be transferred to 21st-century technolo gies. “In th e name of Fr Peyton, I appeal to every Christian in Ireland today who sends texts, Twitters or uses e-mail to think about setting up groups of prayer between you and your friends using these modern means of communication,” said the cardinal. “ I ask young people in particular to think of sending their friends and family an occasional Twitter or text to say that you have prayed for them.” The cardinal predicted that such a sea of prayer would strengthen a national sense of solidarity with one another, especially for families suffering hardship in the current economic recession. Calling for a return to the traditional practice of saying the Rosary, the cardinal said it would advance the cause of peace in the family right across this island. “Try prayer — it works,” he added.
- Gerard Kelly, founder of the Bless Network in the Netherlands, writes: Why not use Twitter as a means of prayer, all the time accepting the constraints of communication in less than 140 characters? In essence I simply took the Twitter question “What are you doing?” and translated it as “What are you praying?” taking the prayers I was praying in any case and crafting them into personal liturgies. Two hundred and twenty-four Twitturgies later , the result has been an unexpected change in my own life of prayer. Others have expressed appreciation for the prayers they have received on Twitter, but the real benefits have been in my own spirituality. By allowing my commitment to Twitturgies to force upon me the regular question, “What are you praying?” the practice of writing Twitturgies has blown a fresh breeze through my prayers. There are three key ways in which this has really helped me: Firstly, it has empowered me to pray frequent, short prayers, peppering my day with snatched moments of prayer, rather than waiting for the rare occasions when I can spend focused hours praying. I still seek out those times when I can, but I am praying more overall by adding these shorter prayers. I don’t update Twitturgies at fixed times, but they are often early-morning or late-evening “tweets,” with whatever opportunities I can find in between to use my computer or phone to pray. Secondly, the forced constraint of 140 characters brings incredible focus to my prayers. On many occasions I have been surprised by the clarity that emerges. Twitturgies are shared with others, so they have to be interesting, accessible, and easy to understand—criteria that should be perhaps applied to prayer more often. Twitter posts are the new Haiku, and as the Japanese have known for centuries, the constraints of form do not stifle creativity: they give it depth. The challenge of expressing heartfelt prayers in such short sentences has been a new discipline in itself. Lastly, the practice has made me newly conscious of my own prayers and longings. My aim is that Twitturgies be authentic—that is, that they genuinely reflect something I am praying about. They are prayers, not poems as such. I have to ask myself, “What do I want to say to God right at this moment?” “What is on my heart today?” The questions become part of the discipline. The result of this is that I am both a reader and a writer of Twitturgies; the construction of these prayers speaks to my heart also. And because they are short and sharp, they capture very succinctly what is going on in my soul at a given moment. I archive all the prayers so they are also a ki nd of spiritual journal . I can look back over a day, or a series of days, and see a pattern in the prayers that have emerged. “Reading” this pattern against the events of that day or days helps me to reflect on my own spiritual journey more deeply. Twitter has become, for me, a vital part of my prayer life. Because it is intended to be a mobile medium (I write as often from my phone as from my laptop), it is a go-anywhere prayerbook. I have prayed “twitturgically” in between appointments, walking home from the office, during a coffee break, in a worship service, and in the last moments before sleep. Perhaps Twitter can become a kind of technological breath-prayer, a “pray without ceasing” application for any of us. Source: “Twitter as a Spiritual Practice,” July 1, 2009 http://godspace.wordpress.com/2009/07/01/twitter-as-a-spiritual-practice/
- Gerard Kelly, founder of the Bless Network and senior pastor of the Crossroads Amsterdam in the Netherlands, writes: Why not use Twitter as a means of prayer, all the time accepting the constraints of communication in less than 140 characters? In essence I simply took the Twitter question “What are you doing?” and translated it as “What are you praying?” taking the prayers I was praying in any case and crafting them into personal liturgies. Two hundred and twenty-four (now 458!) Twitturgies later , the result has been an unexpected change in my own life of prayer. Others have expressed appreciation for the prayers they have received on Twitter, but the real benefits have been in my own spirituality. By allowing my commitment to Twitturgies to force upon me the regular question, “What are you praying?” the practice of writing Twitturgies has blown a fresh breeze through my prayers. There are three key ways in which this has really helped me: Firstly, it has empowered me to pray frequent, short prayers, peppering my day with snatched moments of prayer, rather than waiting for the rare occasions when I can spend focused hours praying. I still seek out those times when I can, but I am praying more overall by adding these shorter prayers. I don’t update Twitturgies at fixed times, but they are often early-morning or late-evening “tweets,” with whatever opportunities I can find in between to use my computer or phone to pray. Secondly, the forced constraint of 140 characters brings incredible focus to my prayers. On many occasions I have been surprised by the clarity that emerges. Twitturgies are shared with others, so they have to be interesting, accessible, and easy to understand—criteria that should be perhaps applied to prayer more often. Twitter posts are the new Haiku, and as the Japanese have known for centuries, the constraints of form do not stifle creativity: they give it depth. The challenge of expressing heartfelt prayers in such short sentences has been a new discipline in itself. Lastly, the practice has made me newly conscious of my own prayers and longings. My aim is that Twitturgies be authentic—that is, that they genuinely reflect something I am praying about. They are prayers, not poems as such. I have to ask myself, “What do I want to say to God right at this moment?” “What is on my heart today?” The questions become part of the discipline. The result of this is that I am both a reader and a writer of Twitturgies; the construction of these prayers speaks to my heart also. And because they are short and sharp, they capture very succinctly what is going on in my soul at a given moment. I archive all the prayers so they are also a kind of spiri tual journal. I can loo k back over a day, or a series of days, and see a pattern in the prayers that have emerged. “Reading” this pattern against the events of that day or days helps me to reflect on my own spiritual journey more deeply. Twitter has become, for me, a vital part of my prayer life. Because it is intended to be a mobile medium (I write as often from my phone as from my laptop), it is a go-anywhere prayerbook. I have prayed “twitturgically” in between appointments, walking home from the office, during a coffee break, in a worship service, and in the last moments before sleep. Perhaps Twitter can become a kind of technological breath-prayer, a “pray without ceasing” application for any of us. Source: “Twitter as a Spiritual Practice,” July 1, 2009 http://godspace.wordpress.com/2009/07/01/twitter-as-a-spiritual-practice/ See also: “The Next Level of Prayer: Social Media” http://churchcrunch.com/2009/07/17/the-next-level-of-prayer-social-media/
- Shane Hipps “Third Way Faith” podcast on taking teens on short-term mission trips to inner-city Los Angeles and requiring them to give up their cellphones and MP3 players for a whole week, which forces them to interact with each other one-on-one in ways they are not normally forced to interact. The teens hate it at first, but by the end of the week, they are very grateful for the growth that it’s allowed in them inter-personally and socially. Source: http://shanehipps.blogspot.com/
- “ 5 Ideas for Ethical Social Networking” by Don Heatley, United Methodist pastor http://www.donheatley.com/2009/07/5-idea.html Recently I wrote a piece, “Communities or Commodities” questioning the self-promotional nature of social networks. We develop a compartmentalized view of our online relationships as if they are somehow detached from the realm of ethical behavior. In most spiritual traditions, there are calls to die to one’s self and one’s ego. Often, this concept is at odds with the very nature of Facebook or Twitter. Rather than just complain, I thought I would offer some suggestions. Perhaps some of them are unrealistic. These are rooted in my own tradition as a follower of Jesus, but I hope people of any or no spiritual tradition would find them helpful as well: 1. Take a Sabbath from yourself – Take a break one day each week from talking about yourself. Only post good things and promote the agendas of others. Share and retweet messages that make other people look good. Just make sure that doing so is of no benefit to you. 2. Begin your status updates with “If God wills it…” or some variant thereof. Early Christians admonished one another not to brag about their plans for tomorrow because one never knew what the next day would bring forth. Admitting the tenuous nature of our plans acknowledges how little we have control of our lives, and in turn, makes us less controlling. 3. Don’t slam with status – Jesus said if you have a problem with a person, go to them directly. It’s tempting to write messages that are hidden jabs at someone we know will read them. If you find yourself doing that – STOP. Hit the delete key and walk away from your computer and go spend time playing with the kids or the dog. 4. Say nice things about people you don’t like – Jesus said to love our enemies and do good to those who attack us. Having a dispute with a friend? Post something nice about them. On a larger scale, rather than post your latest insult about Obama or Palin, write something you admire about them. You just might find it opens up a dialogue with those with whom you disagree. 5. Pray your Friend List – People always tell me they don’t know how to pray. Right there, in your networking software, you have a tool to get started. Spend time each day saying a brief prayer for each person in your friend or following list. For those of you who are more popular, you may want to break it up over a few days.
- 3 Theological Challenges for the Church Engaging Social Media Challenge #1: Be reverse incarnational. Inhabit these virtual communities with honesty, integrity, transparency, and humility. Challenge #2: Maintain the physical in the sacramental. Inviting people (and even challenging them) to come out of their virtual worlds and enter into physical community with others on the journey of faith. (example: Eucharist in Second Life) Challenge #3: Promote spiritual practices, such as fasting from media and devices. Calling people to unplug and step out of the constantly flowing stream of information. (example: Twitter in church)