Slashdot Mirror
Churches Use Twitter To Reach a Wider Audience
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."
I'm a Christian, and I'm a tech.
One of the principles of "coming out" as a xtian techy is the presumption of innocence -- that we are innocent of our own existence as programmers, that we did not make ourselves and we did not make the world, and that in revealing who we are and what we see, we simply reveal what is already there. We are not confessing to a crime. We are revealing our existence as Slashdotters. What we ask for in doing so is simple recognition: We desire to be seen. We put aside for the time being the question of our effect on others. We leave it up to others what they should do about who we are. That does not mean they will do what we want. If we have been sufficiently skillful in constructing our false self, those who love us may indeed love this false self, and may greet with consternation the arrival of what we consider to be our authentic self.
So in coming out we ask, Can you still love me, knowing who I am? A Rob Malda-loving programmer? Perhaps the answer is no. Perhaps our partner has fallen in love with the character of our creation. That is frightening, is it not? Not? So in discovering who we are and admitting it to ourselves, we must at the same time begin the hard process of finding love for this previously unloved-because-unrevealed self. We begin by loving ourselves. Now, of course, in a way your wife does love exactly who you are. I feel sure that there is something about your questioning nature, your rational mind, your courage, your clear-eyed vision, that she does love deeply. Nonetheless, when we reveal who we really are, it changes the nature of love. It changes how we are loved, and for what. She can no longer love you as a churchgoing man if you stop going to church.
And there is the frightening possibility hovering at the edges that our lover might not love us at all, but only the false self we have presented. We do love characters in movies and books that are not real. Why should we not fall in love with other invented characters? For that matter, how could anyone love our true self if we have kept our true self secret? So you risk a lot. But you risk it for the biggest prize of all: to be loved for who you really are. As to the effect your revelation may have on others, whether it is selfish: If you believe their beliefs are wrong, then in speaking out you are helping them. They can only benefit from hearing what you say. They can only benefit from the truth. If their beliefs are wrong, they are wasting their time in church and the sooner they stop wasting their time the better off they will be. Now, if they left the church, they might lose community standing and fellowship. But truth is our highest quest, is it not? But perhaps you secretly fear that they are right. Well, there too, by confessing your doubt you are doing them a favor: You are giving them the opportunity to save you. Let them try.
I appreciate that you have addressed your question not just to me, but to the many who give of themselves here, many with more relevant knowledge and experience than mine. I hope you will find much here of value as people weigh in, and I hope you will be able to take what you need and leave the rest. I also appreciate your concern for those in your life who might be upset by your revelation, and how you try to balance your own need to disclose your truth with the consternation it may cause them.
May I say one thing regarding my own perhaps crazy beliefs on the subject? I really believe it is possible that a grace exists in the universe that in caring for you and saving you does not care one whit whether you believe in it or not, and does not care what you think is true: a grace whose intelligence is so freely boundless and beyond us that whatever we think of it does not even occur to it, or occurs to it the way the consternation of a dog occurs to us when we bathe it. We take note of the consternation of the dog but we do not find it persuasive; we already know what we're going to do with the dog. We're going to bathe the dog. I just had to say that. Good luck with your loved ones.
I'm a Christian, and I'm a tech. (I don't use twitter - I don't see a point to it). I do however, understand that this is another way to let people know what your particular church is about - on the other hand, I think this can be really distracting for those in the congregation that are trying to listen to the message for the day. I heard about this last week on K-Love (National Christian radio station) and will be interesting to see how it works out. (I don't see this lasting long)
Sorry I picked you for this one, but you were the first self-identified Christian I saw posting in here.
... then, and only then, would I consider joining that congregation. Extra points if at least some of the sessions include material that is difficult and challenging and represents an understanding higher than your own so that you can strive to reach for it, rather than the easily understood (and easily heard) platitudes which are designed to appeal to (i.e. pander to) the masses.
The moment I find one church where its members love one another, do not judge for any reason especially reasons based on appearance (i.e. the clothing you wear, etc.), do not form little exclusive cliques as though this were high school, do not gossip about one another and refuse to entertain gossip about anyone else, understand the folly of anger and frustration, and show genuine loving-kindness instead of merely being nice because they are weak for the approval of others and worry about what other people think of them
The words in the form of chapter and verse are a map. The map is not the territory. When I go into churches, what I find is a bunch of people who have memorized words and they think they understand them, but it does not show in their lives per my criteria above. They still think that the spiritual experience is an intellectual experience. They don't see how limited intellect and logic really are, how they are powerful yet useless for all but the most mundane of affairs.
The whole problem with the Bible is that you kinda already have to "get it" before you can really get much out of what it teaches. At that point where you start getting it, you realize that most of the religions started with a simple idea that is beyond all intellectual or logical apprehension and that great complications arose when the enlightened tried to teach that idea to others. Those enlightened folks had a severely difficult problem: how to use words to teach something for which there are no words. The best that they could do was to provide a description of what it looks like and hope that those who study it don't confuse the description for the real thing (i.e. religion instead of spirituality). That confusion is exactly what has happened to modern "Churchianity". It's a shame, really, because if you study various religions and have seen the real thing, you will find that the Christians have one of the most accurate descriptions available.
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
I means you need wash you device with alcohol.