Until recently, the idea of pulling out your cell phone in church was the height of trashy behavior. But now, some pastors all over the country are encouraging their members to Twitter during the service, sending out "tweets" of notes, ideas, and principles from the message to their many followers.
First off let me say this; if your pastor is so boring you have to multi-task on your phone to keep from losing it during a service, you might want to consider finding a church where you personal can get fed. I believe this is another way for Satan to stop the message from going forth. Satan no's that preaching is one of the most powerful tool there is for reaching souls for Christ. Satan has watch man long enough to no just what to use to pull us away and stop us from receiving from something as simple as preaching.
Now the Holy Spirit does not interrupt itself when speaking to people. If the Spirit is speaking to you through the pastor then you should be listening and taking to heart what the Spirit is saying. If you are texting then you are not giving full attention and 
you are likely annoying someone near you with your activity.
I fell it's better to ask the person to come to church with you so you both can be blessed, or wait until after the service and either visit or call them and tell them what wonderful thing God did in church today. Reading a tweet is like eating popcorn, there is usually very little substance in it.
I used to go to a large church and they would make announcements before every service for people to turn off their pagers, phones, and other devices and still in every service you can hear someone's crazy ring tone that disturbs right when the pastor is at the crux of the matter. Really, is church such a waste of time that we can't give Jesus our undivided attention for 1 hour?
Question: Is there a place in the worship service for technologies like Twitter? What do you think?
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7 comments:
Here is another church pandering to the culture. The message is for YOU not for someone else. PAY ATTENTION. It's just a different way to "talk to your neighbor" during the message AND the neighbor ain't there! No!
Hello there!
I think that it all depends on the church setting whether Twittering the sermon notes is appropriate!
If the pastor is telling the congregation that it is okay then I am not sure WHY that is a distraction to the other members of the congregation... I am not watching what someone else is doing on their cell phone during service so I would not be distracted by anyone's Twittering during the sermon.
I think that pretty soon, many megachurches will have laptop docking stations right in the pews so that people can type their sermon notes onscreen instead of writing in a tablet.
I am sure this means that some people will be surfing the internet during the service and that means that they didn't come to church to hear from God anyway...
I watched a woman change her baby's diaper in the sanctuary once!
I have seen parents giving sandwiches and beverages to their toddlers in the church service...snack time in the pews?!!
Parents bring toys for their children to play with during the services all the time.
I know a pastor who had a little television installed in the pulpit and he would watch the game during the service until it was time for him to preach.
Even before we had Twittering and texting, there have been people who show up just to be there and to be seen and they are sitting in the pews like dead corpses not even SEEKING to hear from the Lord.
I just don't think that removing (or adding) texting and Twittering will have any real impact on whether people enter the church with their minds on God.
I believe in decorum in church but I also feel that removing texting and Twittering will not change the inner condition of those in the pews.
Peace, blessings and DUNAMIS!
Lisa
This is only allowed in Christendom, GOD does not a Blackberry, Iphone, Palm, he doesn't need to tweet or twitter, to transfer his holy spirit!
So why don't we give him our undivided attention!
Just because people don't come to church with their minds on the LORD doesn't mean that we should encourage such a lax approach to worship. To change simply because some people don't hold a higher view of worshipping GOD is indeed pandering to what people want instread of what people NEED. The culture is full of things and gadgets that draw our attention away from GOD on a day to day minute to minute basis. Please allow the gathering of the LORD's people be a respite from things that click, tweet, blip, ping, ring and pop.
As far as feeding small children a snack during a long church service...Jesus would have done the same, I believe. The average black church service is btween 3 and 4 hours long. In most cases only the "ministers" are allowed official drinks and snacks. Let the very small children have a cracker and some juice!
I once had a woman tell me right in church that I was full of sh**. Should we adjust the decorum down merely because some act in a sacriligious manner?
Taking personal notes on a PC is different in my mind than the pastor's intent to have you text people while he teaches. The intent is different. The intention is different. Why not record the sermon or teaching and give them away to those who need the message? This idea seems like a open door for confusion. I also try not to pay attention to what many other worshippers do in church but when one whips out a cell phone or a two way or blackberry and startes clicking away, I mean c'mon.
I recently came across your blog and love it.
Is there a place for Twitter during service? Yes and no. No, individual members in the pews should not be twittering or using any other social networking device during the service. I totally agree that this is where you should tune in to God and tune out the world, including electronic devices.
But, churches should take advantage of the new technologies. So, if there's a person who's job it is to Twitter the message, that might be okay. (But they should attend one service where they are in service, not texting.) Beyond that, I think folks should wait to tweet or text until after the Amen.
I actually sometimes don't know why I am still at my church. It has stretched from an hour and a half when I was a child to almost two and a half hours now.
As the mother of an mixed child I still want her to have the black experience of the gospel that I had as a youth, but honestly, some of the nonsense that goes on now, I am about at my wits end.
Twittering in church? Okay I suppose, but nah, I have the whole week for social networking. I came for a message, it seems to have just become a show for some.
Don't get me wrong. There are some older members that are near and dear and have really shaped my life growing up and now. But the new direction that the current pastor and leadership is heading has me praying to find somewhere else to call my church home.
The Devil is alive. He's building Mega-churches for Mega-fools. He's building vast communication systems so he can spread his message via cable tv and twittering in church. Changing diaper, feeding small kids and writing notes in the church program is in no way akin to lap tops and twitty-twettering from church. The Devil is cunning baffling and powerful. He steals souls and turns then into soldiers by planting greed and gluttony in their hearts. He feels their hearts with inflated egos and they march on with loud and sometimes convincing voices. They look good and sound good but they are spiritually dead. And, we all know that SOME leaders of SOME churches are not preaching Gods word.
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