I confess, Twitter is just not my cup of tea.  My problem is that I can’t think of enough things to say to maximize the 140 character limit.  But,  if it’s social and irrelevant relevant, then you can bet the socially relevant churches of today will jump on the bandwagon.  Ya gotta keep up with the times, ya know?

A church in New York city has begun tweeting their messages so a sea of anonymous web surfers can read the tweets and be blessed.  Forget going to church, forget worship, forget preaching of the gospel, just fire up your twitter page and let the ministering begin in 140 characters or less!

In this article, a socially relevant church in New York, Trinity Church, conducted an experiment in April where the service was being tweeted.  It didn’t exactly go as planned.

While hundreds of worshipers watched the traditional dramatization of the Crucifixion from pews in the church, one of New York’s oldest, thousands more around the world followed along on smartphones and computers as a staff member tweeted short bursts of dialogue and setting (“Darkness and earthquake,” “Crucify him!”). 

The trouble began in the second hour.

Twitter’s interactivity — its essence — made it easy for an anonymous text-messager to insert an unscripted character into the Passion play: a Roman guard who breezily claimed, “I’ve got dibs on his robe.” When another texter introduced a rogue Mary Magdalene, the intrusion only confirmed the obvious: Twitter’s trademark limit of 140 characters per message is no bar against crudity.  (Online Source)

So much for that, huh?  You know, there are some boneheads online who feel empowered by the cloak of anonymity.  Yet, this hasn’t dissuaded the church from continuing it’s Twitter ministry.  Here’s more from the article:

Since Good Friday, Trinity has been tweeting its Sunday services to a small but growing group of followers (525 as of Wednesday) from Europe to California, including some who live closer by. A church employee transmits snippets of the service in real time — tweets like “God be with you” or “Inspire us with your holy spirit.”

“I’m a sporadic worshiper,” said Anne Libby, a management consultant in Manhattan who often follows the services on Twitter between occasional visits to Trinity.

The connection, however slender, has drawn her closer to the church community, she said. She has never tweeted back during a service. She does not always follow every word.

But she has noticed that her favorite Bible quotation fits nicely within the 140-character Twitter limit: “Love your neighbor as yourself,” she said.  (Online Source)

God be with you?  Inspire us with your holy spirit?  Love your neighbor as yourself?  Spoken in Scriptural context, these statements are not invalid.  But, seeing them in the Twitter format, they are nothing more than a mish-mash of broken statements with no power or wisdom.  The gospel is not presented.  Salvation is not laid out plainly so the reader can understand.  In fact, Christ Jesus is not represented at all.

I’m trying to imagine what it would be like if Jesus had given His Sermon on the Mount, or his Olivet Discourse in such a manner.  Can you imagine the confusion we would have today?

Now, I don’t want to be a hypocrite here – I do have a Facebook page that I use to keep in touch with out of state family, local family, coworkers, and friends.  At one time I had a Myspace page that I used for the same reason (until I deleted it).  Some churches use Twitter or Facebook to make announcements, and keep the congregation informed of upcoming programs and events.  You’ll never hear me say this is wrong.  However, social experiments like Twitter and Facebook do not trump the preaching of the gospel.  How can people understand their need of salvation if it is not clearly preached to them?  How can they hear without a preacher?  How can he preach if he is not sent?  I thank God there are still some preachers who are willing to forego all socially hip fads, and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the power of God unto salvation to all who will believe.  Twitter is not the power of God unto salvation, and neither is Facebook or Myspace.  Thankfully, it still is and always will be through the foolishness of preaching the gospel, and not through the cleverness of man.

1 Corinthians 1:17-21:

For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, that the cross of Christ should not be made void.  For the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.  For it is written, “I WILL DESTROY THE WISDOM OF THE WISE, AND THE CLEVERNESS OF THE CLEVER I WILL SET ASIDE.”  Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?  For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.