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Churches Use Twitter To Reach a Wider Audience

Posted by samzenpus on from the go-tell-it-on-the-internet dept.

In an attempt to reverse declining attendance figures, many American churches are starting to ask WWJD in 140 or fewer characters. Pastors at Westwinds Community Church in Michigan spent two weeks teaching their 900-member congregation how to use Twitter. 150 of them are now tweeting. Seattle's Mars Hill Church encourages its members to Twitter messages during services. The tweets appear on the church's official Twitter page. Kyle Firstenberg, the church's administrator, said,"It's a good way for them to tell their friends what church is about without their friends even coming in the building."

4 of 169 comments (clear)

  1. OK.... by CWRUisTakingMyMoney · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'm aware most of the people here probably don't practice a religion. I do. Troll on.

    That said, this is ridiculous; just because a technology exists for something, you don't have to use it for everything. If you're truly interested in bringing your friends to (your) religion, Twitter's not gonna do it. You have to actually bring them into the building and break that ice by showing them that, no, you're not snake-handlers speaking in tongues or crazy terrorists preaching jihad or whatever. Besides, the reduction of religious beliefs to sound bytes by believers and non-believers alike is one of the most damaging processes to those who are religious. This will just end up backfiring on them and making them look like fools.

    --
    Those who anthropomorphize science and/or nature already believe in an intelligent designer.
  2. God isn't real, but where does religion come from? by A+beautiful+mind · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Since I don't believe in any god and it's particularly sad to see churches trying to spread misinformation more effectively, I'd like to approach this topic constructively and point towards and interesting lecture I've seen lately that explains how and why religion evolved.

    --
    It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile
    Be yourself no matter what they say
  3. Jesus 2.0 by thetoadwarrior · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Does church now involve setting up torrents for The Passion of Christ?

  4. What would Jesus do? by jcr · · Score: 2, Interesting

    As I recall, he would get tortured to death and then have his philosophy distorted for the purposes of power seekers for thousands of years afterwards.

    -jcr

    --
    The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."