The good news in 140 characters?

It’s amazing what we can pack into 140 characters on Twitter. But is that enough space for the Good News of Jesus?

I thought it might be fun to have some fun on a Tuesday afternoon to see if we could kick off a gospel meme that would fly around the Twitterverse in time for Easter.

Here’s mine:

The world sucks. Pain. Sickness. Death. We know we’re meant for more. Jesus will show you how much. He rescues anyone. Just ask. #goodnews

Be original. Be creative. Use the tag #goodnews. Give it your best.

Imagine the power of folks hearing the truth of Jesus simply by scanning their Twitter or status updates.

Post yours in the comments below.

Filed under: evangelism, social media , evangelism, social media, social networking, Twitter

Dear John: Is the Web church blasphemy?

It’s almost too fashionable now to say you are a fan of the ministries of John Piper and Mark Driscoll, the twin pillars of so-called and much-debated New Calvinism.

But, aside from my extraordinary (and also theologically sophisticated) pastor, Perry Noble, those pastor-theologians have provided much of the spiritual solid foodsince I came to Christ in 2003.

One of the things I admire about most of them is that they convincingly show theology isn’t just an academic matter but essential to every believer for their joy in Christ. And they shepherd their churches with the “Big C” church at the forefront of everything they do.

(They also have two of the most progressive online, multimedia ministries in the world. The Desiring God web site is practically the gold standard for any ministry wanting to make its teaching accessible to the masses in practically every environment.)

In Vintage Church, Pastor Mark has come out unequivocally against the concept of the Web Church. His argument boiled down to his belief that you can’t have “real community” online and that the sacraments of Communion and Baptism cannot be rightly administered.

I’m hoping Pastor John will weigh in soon in response to my twitter question for his “Ask Pastor John” series:

#apj is there a sound theological basis to believe you can worship and be part of Christ’s body in community through an online church?

What other Web church questions would you ask?

Filed under: web campus , theology, Twitter, web campus

The last thing a web church needs is another social network

We’re not going to create a community on NewSpring’s web campus.

I didn’t misspeak. I’m dead straight. We don’t have any plans for any special community infrastructure to be built into our web campus.

Why? Because we think our attenders are already in communities, and they don’t need to add another one to their very long list.

We want attenders to create relationships, but we believe that they already have plenty of tools to make community happen. If they want community, they’ve got it.

Of course, we’re praying for great conversations in our web campus chat room. But we trust the Holy Spirit will lead people to connect them outside our worship services.

Be honest: Do people really respond when churches force them to befriend and nurture random strangers? Who can claim real success from a lifegroups model that involves placing people with leaders they don’t know?

What if the way to honor God’s desire for us to be in Christ-centered community was for every church attender to be constantly seeking and finding people within their existing networks that he wants them to pour into and to take those relationships deeper, individually or in groups?

The vision I’ll be casting to our web attenders is simple: Get to know one another. Share any details your comfortable sharing so that you can take your friendships further. Maybe that’s an email. Maybe that’s your Twitter ID. Perhaps it’s inviting them to friend you on Facebook.

We’re not going to hold your hand or do community for you.

Got a problem with that? Why?

Filed under: community, social media, web campus , community, community management, Facebook, social media, social networking, Twitter, web campus, web campus rollout

Tossing out an idea: Church icampus Twitter mashup?

So, we had this great idea about running a Twitter stream right alongside video of the worship service, instead of open chat. If it was good enough for the Presidential debates, why not a message?

We mocked it up for a couple of days. Then we tossed it away.

Here’s what we were thinking:

We loved the idea of 140 characters. Just long enough to comment on a crazy good sermon illustration. With no expectation of “conversation.” And less distraction. With the bonus of a great shared experience with folks you could passively or actively follow afterward. Kind of like microwaving your online church acquaintances into a “real” network, with hooks into broader networks, through linked blogs etc. And instant advertising for the experience, too.

Then we gave it a second thought.

What about all the noise from tweets no one would have any context for? And what about the fact that Twitter still isn’t a mass phenomenon. And the related issues of how do you explain Twitter to folk anyway? And getting folks to sign up? Especially when a lot of your icampus attenders may not be techno-savvy. And may not want to be.

Should we have tossed away these ideas?

NewSpring’s icampus, much like LifeChurch.tv’s new icampus, probably won’t have real, durable profiles for chatters, so it will be interesting to see how folks sustain and extend their relationships outside the icampus.

Should we hope they’ll direct message or share their emails and social network tags with each other inside the chat? Or should we create an icampus group on a service like Twingr? Or just suggest Twitter?

What are your thoughts?

Filed under: community, web campus , community management, social networking, Twitter, web campus