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 Twitter is used by 320 million people (September 2015) and an amazing 500 million tweets are sent each day.
With such a wide take up, Twitter should also be a way for churches and ministers to connect with others.
If you are not familiar with Twitter then here is a quick introduction:
Twitter is free to join and is a way for people and organisations to share mini updates with their ‘followers’ in the form of tweets. These tweets are up to 140 characters long - the size of a text message.
When someone signs up to Twitter they select the people who they want to follow (or subscribe to). The latest tweets from those they are following will then appear on the homepage of twitter. If for example you followed 20 people then the latest tweets from these 20 twitter accounts would all appear on your twitter homepage.
Many celebrities, companies and governments are using Twitter. Twitter also has huge potential for use by Christians and the Church.
 Twitter Example
The screenshot on the right shows how a twitter page looks. The example shows Canon J.John's twitter page.
When you create a twitter account you can add information about yourself (or your church if this is what the Twitter account has been setup for).
In J.John's account you see he has put information about himself.
The main part of the page will show the latest tweets that have been posted.
At the top of the page there will be a summary of the number of people that follow the person.
Twitter and the church
Twitter is a great way for churches to connect with their congregation and community.
You could setup a Twitter account on behalf of the church and use Twitter as a way to:
- publicise events in the church.
- share news.
- provide links back to your church website.
- share praise reports.
- highlight local events.
- promote prayer points for your local area and neighbourhood.
Twitter and the minister
Twitter doesn’t just have to be from the church account, but could be used as a way for your minister to engage with others. Twitter then becomes a personal way in which to connect with the congregation, community and other ministers.
With Social Media such as Twitter the minister now has a way they can encourage many people with just a few clicks.
A minister could use Twitter for:
- Bible Verses - use Twitter to post your favourite bible verses.
- Words of encouragement.
- Links to other websites - if you have been to a website of interest then use your Twitter account to link to the site or page.
- Share Praise reports.
- Prayer focuses.
- Share your week - if you are comfortable sharing parts of your week then this is a way to interact with your ‘followers’. ie
- "Having a relaxing holiday in Yorkshire"
- "Just visited the local school to take an assembly"
- "Just finished reading Randy Alcorn's book on Heaven - would recommend it!"
- "Just had a local churches together meeting - good time of fellowship with other ministers in our town"
- Thoughts on the upcoming sermon.
- Short reflections or thought provokers from last Sunday's sermon.
NOTE: Twitter is a good way to engage with people but if you decide to use it then you need to be comfortable with the information you put on it. Not everyone, for example, will want to use it to 'share their week' - these are just examples of how Twitter could be used.
Examples of Twitter accounts
Here are some examples of Twitter being used:
To setup a Twitter account visit www.twitter.com.
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* source bbc.co.uk
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