Four reasons why it's ok to pass notes in church…

I've gotten some feedback recently from people wondering why we put Facebook/Twitter quotes in the bulletin or hashtags on the screen during our weekend services. One person put it this way "Who cares about Twitter?" Honestly? This feedback is awesome. It reveals we can do better job with context and vision. Thanks for the feedback!

Bottom line? Remember when you used to get in trouble for passing notes in class or church? Not here! WE WANT YOU TO! The series hashtag you see on the screen during the weekend service is just one way to do it. If you're on Facebook or Twitter, get social during service and use the hashtag as you post notes about what you're learning, what's connecting, what your next step is… you get the drift. Oh, and if you're not on Facebook or Twitter—no worries. You're awesome just as you are—traditional and focused. At least now you know what the little message is for when it pops up during service.

If you're interested in the why behind the what…read on.

Overall, there's a few key objectives we have for incorporating social media touch points into our weekend service:

Elevate the story. By facilitating conversations, we're aware of more stories to follow-up on, share and elevate. Social media is a no brainer. Stories are social. Anytime we provide tools to help people tell stories —its a win. Not to mention, it helps extend the conversation from Saturday night and Sunday morning into digital realms that live long beyond any stand alone live event.
Interactive experience. Culture rallys around experiences where they are invited to a conversation, rather than subjected to a broadcast. That's a distinctive that's not available in a lot of venues—especially church. Anytime we try something in the service that invites a little interactivity, or gives people a choice, we get great feedback. People are hungry for more. This is just another easy way to get at it on a regular basis. Giving people a part to play. It's ok to be texting, tweeting, sharing digitally while engaging in the service. Engaging digitally is important to today's culture. Even if they read a feed and choose not to speak up, it's still their choice and we're providing an option.
Real time feedback. Self-explainatory. Benefits obvious. Informs us of the whole picture, not just the part we see. Allows us to make decisions, program and respond to felt needs from the people in the congregation, crowd and community.
Discipleship tool. Twitter and Facebook discipleship tools? WHAT?! You say? My friend, Joel, put it this way:

"If you could be a fly on our pastor's shoulder all day long and see how he handles everyday situations – our lives would be better for it. We would see the world through different eyes. We would see how he interprets scripture through practical real world illustrations that he may think nothing of. But to many people this is extremely valuable. Twitter because its so instant and so personal, gives a person's followers a glimpse into their minds. Think about Jesus and his disciples, they were with Jesus all the time for three whole years. They saw him interact with shop owners as he bought lunch, as he interacted with people, as he taught. They got to see the bible lived out. I wholeheartedly believe that we should be connecting our congregation to our pastor's twitter accounts for the same reason the disciples followed Jesus; it can be another way to connect our congregation to our pastor's everyday lives. I think that its important to see how Mark goes on a nightly Starbucks run with his wife, or how Rob is interacting with his girls, or how Tim pours into others. This can only be good. Pastor Beeson's blog is very encouraging to a lot of people, and helping people find his posts via tweet stream can be just as encouraging and could help more people."

Offline people? There's some good to be found online. Online people? There's some good to be found offline. Hope this helps. Enjoy and be social!

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