Last Sunday, amidst the chaos of the technological issues (if you want to know what I’m talking about, see here) I pulled out my phone while we were sitting during the message to update my 
twitter status. My action was met with a bit of shock from the worship team members sitting on either side of me. The idea of texting in church was apparently not a good idea to them – but is it so bad? I don’t think so!
It’s not uncommon for me to tweet (Twitter-speak for updating your Twitter status) during the message at church. Often, it’s a thought I’m having or a particularly good quote from the message that I want to share. My tweet from Sunday (that never did get posted because they threatened to take my phone away) was simply “The message must be right on the nose today because Satan is trying really hard to derail it!” While I definitely think texting to communicate with others during church is less than appropriate, tweeting about church can be a great witness tool.
I’m sure that when it comes to twitter, I know of only a hand-full of people at Journey who have accounts and quite possibly there are only two of us who regularly update and follow others. 
BUT there is another option that far more people already use and it’s becoming more and more twitter-like all the time: FACEBOOK. If you have a cell phone with texting and a Facebook account, you need to setup Facebook mobile. (Super easy instructions to set it up) It allows you to text to Facebook and update your status, as well as text pictures and videos to be uploaded too. It’s easy and doesn’t require you to have web capabilities on your phone.
Think about it this way: The average Facebook user has 120 friends. That is 120 people who you have an opportunity to share your faith with. Short of stopping everyone you see in a week, you’re not going to have the opportunity to share your faith with that many people. You’re status updates don’t need to become these fire and brimstone “turn or burn” messages – just share what you’re thinking, a scripture verse or a quote from the message. Things like:
At church and the worship team just finished Mighty to Save – I love that song!
Pastor Bob just made a great point – “I believe that when Jesus comes back, the church with the most debt wins because they weren’t worried about themselves but about those they were called to reach.”
I have a number of friends on Facebook that I don’t know what their faith is like, or if it’s even there at all. I often wonder what they think when they see my status – and to be honest, I often have them in mind when I post them. It’s even led to a couple of conversations about the topic – conversations that would have never happened if it weren’t for my more-than-occasional mentions of church.
Give Twittering or Facebooking during church (or bible study) a shot and see what kind of a witness you can be to your online friends. If you need some help or inspiration, look me up on Facebook or Twitter and I’ll be glad to help!
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