Should Churches tweet? If you’re ready for that big responsibility, then I’d say, “Go for it!” But as the book of James says, “Not everyone who can teach should be a teacher.” The same can be said of those who tweet. “Not all churches who can tweet should tweet.”
When you start a twitter account for your church, the words and the way you tweet your words can be seen by the entire world. Most of the world is not Christian so remember where your Twitter light is shining. People who are not Christian will be judging you and possibly all of Christianity by what you tweet and not just what you tweet, but how you tweet.
What You Tweet
Do you plan on tweeting Bible verses? Church announcements? Encouraging thoughts? You should have an idea of what you’ll be tweeting before beginning your account. Maybe you’ll be tweeting what the church secretary is eating at lunch today? Let’s hope not. Just put some thought into your church twitter account before beginning it.
How You Tweet
You can tweet in a few different ways. Think about how often you will tweet. If all your tweets will be weekly announcements of your sermon topic, maybe an email list to your members might be better for your church. If you send out encouraging thoughts on a regular basis, maybe daily or two or three times a day will suffice, expect some people to follow your account because they like your tweets. People will reply to your tweets. Are you prepared to reply to them?
Seriously consider @replies (or mentions). When people tweet you, a reply is in order, even if it is only a quick thank you. As a church, if all you do is spout wisdom, encouraging thoughts or church announcements and never reply to people, you are doing harm to your church and possibly to Christianity. Twitter is a social media platform and your church Twitter account needs to be social.
Be careful how you tweet. Remember, your Twitter light is shining all over a world full of people who are not Christians.
Your Twitter Tales
Please leave a comment below if you’ve seen any intriguing use of church Twitter accounts. Typically, I see church Twitter accounts used as a megaphone, shouting out announcements and proclamations. If you’ve seen anything different, I’d love to read about it.
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