I came to Twitter reluctantly. The benefits of 'micro-blogging' my oft drudged daily routine to solicited followers seemed...narcissistic. Maybe there's still truism in that initial feeling, but I'm also sold on the fact that social networking mediums are a powerful force in our world today.As I write this, the future course of Iran is playing out in the streets of Tehran...history in the making. With the media blackout imposed by the reigning power, news is finding it's way to the rest of the world via Twitter, Facebook and other such mediums. The U.S. State Department requested that Twitter delay a scheduled maintenance outage mid-week so the flow of information would continue. Just typing State Department and Twitter in the same sentence would have been completely incomprehensible to me a few months ago.
For those of you resisting the fad, Twitter is a web-based social networking service that allows users to 'tweet' 140 characters at a time to their followers. According to a recent front page Time magazine article, Twitter is changing the way we look at our world. Some would say it already has...
Most of you know I try to stay on top of the latest trends in internet innovation. My motivation is really quite simple, if it draws the interest of people...Christians need to be there with WWJD bracelets on representing Christ. As I've stated in numerous blog post, the internet is only evil because evil people are there. Evil people who need to know about the love of God...even for them.
So now, like my fellow blogging buddy Katdish among others, I'm a Twitterer (?). Katdish just calls us Twitter ho's, but I don't think that's a sanctioned title by Twitter. I'm tweeting about daily task and thoughts, prayer request, good articles or blogs I've read...any number of things each day. I must say it's quite liberating in the fact that I have yet another daily opportunity to witness for God. I receive prayer request daily from people which I add to my daily prayer list...sometimes taking a moment to stop and pray the minute they're received.
At the risk of sounding Pharisee-like, I think it's important for Christians to acknowledge our piousness to the rest of the world. After all, Christ hung on a cross in a public spectacle that changed the world as it had never been changed. I'm not trying to undermine the importance of humility by any means, but people need to know they are loved and cared about by Christ and Christ Followers. If one tweet can show that love and bring another soul to heaven...color me there.
Twitter or Facebook may not be your thing and that's perfectly okay. Just don't avoid them because of the negative stigma we often place on internet based application as Christians. God needs to be all over the world wide web too...
8 comments:
I just hate it when a misplaced mouse click deletes something unintentionally. What I said before was:
Great post Tony. I believe we as Christians need to seize everything we can in order to advance the message of Christ. So much has change in our lifetime (us old guys anyway - like you mentioned in your post the other day) technologically. To not use these advances would be a great loss. I feel so often that we as Christians wait for the lost to come to us. Jesus never said: "Sit around in your comfy houses of worship and wait for the to come." No, He said, "Go into all the world. . ." I truly believe the end is near and we need to more than ever reach out to the lost in every way we can. Technology is only one of those ways.
Tony, noooo! You've fallen to the Twitter side!
That's alright, but I just can't make myself do it. The only thing I would Tweet would be links to my blog posts. I'll have to wait for the next big thing.
Tony, I was thinking about this blog while resting and waiting for my pain pill to kick in. (Seriously)
And I was thinking about a comment to make about it I just started laughing. There I go again ! I swear it is the Vitamin B that Ray J. recommended I take.
Anyway it occurred to me that it is a sad day when strong, grown men give in to tweeting. I mean come on all you guys, its does sound kind of sissy.
There has to be a more manly word that guys can use. Something like: vroom,vrooming (sound of a truck or a motorcycle, grrrrrrrr (sound of a grizzly bear). I bet others will have much better ideas.
I can just picture a great big bear of a man, complete with a full face of hair getting off his Harley and he of course is wearing his leathers. As he gets off his bike he pulls out his cell and tells his biker friends to wait a minute before he goes into the bar with them, he 'needs to tweet first'. LOL LOL
Well, all this laughing is helping me feel better, maybe more than that pain pill. Guess I will have to cook dinner after all.
I really enjoy your humor and hope you don't mind mine.
Oh no bro, say it ain't so.
You gon' made yo'self a twitter-ho
Signed
Your neighbourhood Twitter Snob
Matt and Shark Bait: You don't know what you're missing. Oh, wait. You do if you read my Friday updates.
In all seriousness, I have made some very important contacts via Twitter and have been able to help friends connect to some influential people that they might not have had the opportunity to interface with.
Also? I am a shameless self promoter...
Thanks for the shout out.
I think anyway we get to let people know who we are, what we are thinking and how love God is a good thing.
You can follow me on Twitter dsjohndrow . Or read my blog at fireandgrace.com or catch me on MySpace.com/johndrowcket/ or read my web site at johndrow.com. Or stop by the house, you have my cell. ;o)
Tehran is another story. Iraq is the seat of Babylon, and we know that the descendants of Ishmael (Muslim)will war against the descendants of Issac (Israel). Father Abraham could have saved us a lot of trouble by not messing with the concubine!
What is happening, is the homogenization of civilization as news leaks out of Iran. Like the European Union, borders will come down and eventually, the Bible declares that we will have 12 kingdoms.
Keep the oil in the lamp, my friend.
AMEN! I totally agree with this statement: "Most of you know I try to stay on top of the latest trends in internet innovation. My motivation is really quite simple, if it draws the interest of people...Christians need to be there with WWJD bracelets on representing Christ"
I think a lot of old school Christians (no offense to any), but they give social networking sites a bad rep without fully understanding what they are about. I used to have a blog on xanga and I believe God used it to really touch some lives, but because of some flack, I prematurely shut my page down to get avoid the heat of the drama. I am so thankful I was "re-introduced" to blogging a few months back because it's a simple, easy way to connect with people who otherwise may not have listened. Co-workers, family, friends, the guy on the street. It's as simple as saying, "Hey, come check out my blog." and when the get there, the light of Christ should shine all over it. I greatly appreciated this post. Thank you!. :)
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