Pomomusings

Technology, Theology & Ministry

  • Home
  • About
  • Contact

Should Your Church or Religious Organization Be on Twitter?

December 5, 2011 Adam Walker Cleaveland

So this past week, I did the most important thing that a young, hip, newly-ordained pastor should do. I got my church on Twitter! You’ve all done that, right? Well, if not, stop reading this post right now. No, I mean RIGHT now. And go to twitter.com and get signed up. It’s important.

After that, be sure to follow @1stPresAshland below to keep updated on our tweets (if you’re interested):

Follow @1stPresAshland

But, most of you are probably asking the question: should my church or religious organization be on Twitter? Well, the short answer is: Yes! I think so. The longer answer is: Yes! But it might not be for the reasons you think.

I signed our small church up for Twitter after a conversation with the folks who work on our church website. I mentioned that I was thinking about doing it, and they encouraged me to get it going. But what I did mention to them, is that I doubt anyone in our church uses Twitter. I also reminded them that just because our church was on Twitter, it didn’t mean that we’d suddenly get a large influx of youth and young adults to our church.

So, why do I think it’s so important to sign your church up for Twitter?

Because it will help you listen to your community (most likely, the larger community that your church is a part of) and it will help you get your message out to the community. And much of that has to do with your ability to play with and tweak Twitter’s search function. Twitter’s search is an amazing opportunity to get into your community, from your office, and hear what folks are talking about.

Let me give you an example. I did a search for all tweets that mentioned the word “church” in Ashland, including a radius of 15 miles around Ashland. On their Advanced Search page, you can setup searches like that. Or, you can just copy and paste this into the search bar, and change the city and state to your context:

church near:”Ashland, Oregon” within:15mi

That then pulled up a lot of random tweets, some that were relevant, others not. But what it did was allow me to find tweets like this by folks in Ashland, and a few just outside of our small town:

I am so deeply sorry to all who have been hurt & affected by the westboro baptist church... My heart is in agony over what they are doing...
November 26, 2011 4:42 am via Tweetbot for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite
@TayTayGumby
Taylor J. Bates
Is your church/ congregation/ synagogue encouraging earth-friendly, low-consumption Christmas/ holiday habits? Let me know!
December 2, 2011 7:52 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite
@ameliakct
Amelia Templeton
Hey rural Kentucky, the early 1950s called… they want their racist church back. Unbelievable… http://t.co/awL7nrEL via @daily
December 2, 2011 10:54 am via The DailyReplyRetweetFavorite
@travel_junkie
Joseph Linaschke

What an amazing opportunity to hear what folks in your community are saying about “church” and “churches” (and whatever else you want to search for). And then, what that allows for the possibility of, is conversation with people in your community who you would most likely probably not run into. I responded to the young man’s tweet about the Westboro Baptist Church with the following tweet:

@TayTayGumby Just saw your tweet re: Westboro. We agree! We are an open and affirming church in Ashland...and this grieves us too.
December 1, 2011 3:01 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite
@1stPresAshland
First Pres Ashland

And I was able to respond to the tweet about the Kentucky church that banned mixed-race couples from attending church.

@travel_junkie @daily Totally ridiculous! Unfortunately, it's churches like that(!) that tend to make the news...
December 5, 2011 2:41 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite
@1stPresAshland
First Pres Ashland
@travel_junkie @daily ...and not welcoming and affirming, like many of our churches in Ashland. Ours is very inclusive & open to all!
December 5, 2011 2:41 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite
@1stPresAshland
First Pres Ashland

And then he responded with an affirmation of both the greater Ashland community and of our church!

@1stPresAshland good to hear… I knew I liked this town :)
December 5, 2011 2:48 am via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite
@travel_junkie
Joseph Linaschke

I don’t know this person, but it’s likely that this is the first time they’ve had a conversation with a pastor from the First Presbyterian Church of Ashland. It didn’t take much time on my part, but it’s probably an interaction that he’ll remember, and I can imagine him telling friends about this article, and then saying something like, “And you know what? Some random church from my town commented on it, and they let me know that they were a very welcome and affirming church – cool use of technology!” Well, maybe he wasn’t that impressed with the connection, but it was a connection I probably wouldn’t have had otherwise.

So, should your church get on Twitter to get young adults to come to your church? Probably not. Should your religious organization be on Twitter because it’s the new, hip, thing to do? Nope. But should you take just a few minutes to sign up so that you can keep an ear to the ground of your community? So that you can join in conversations that people are having out there on Twitter’s interwebs? Yup. At least, I think so.

How about you? What helpful and meaningful ways has your church or religious organization used Twitter?

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: Ministry, Technology Tagged With: Ministry, Small Town Ministry, Social-Networking, Technology, Tweeting, Twitter, Young Adult Ministry

Adam is an artist, entrepreneur, pastor, husband and father. He lives in Skokie, Illinois with his wife Sarah (who is also a pastor), their son Caleb, and their dog, Sadie. Read More…

« Two Lesbians Raised A Baby And This Is What They Got
What is the church’s response? »
  • Books
  • Art & Design
  • Ministry
  • PC(USA)
  • Sexuality
  • Theology
  • Youth Ministry

Copyright © 2023 · Adam Walker Cleaveland

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.