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The Power of a Tweet

March 22, 2011 in Spiritual Growth with 68 Comments

Read a fascinating post yesterday about a guy who worked for a PR firm that was helping run the twitter account for Chrysler and he accidentally tweeted from the Chrysler account thinking he was tweeting from his personal account. On the wrong account he said…

“I find it ironic that Detroit is known as the Motor City yet no one here knows how to f—ing drive.”

Not only was the guy fired immediately, but the next day Chrysler actually dumped the whole agency.

It got me thinking. I know that everyone has a different strategy for their blogs, twitter and facebook. Many people see social media as a platform to get even with people and businesses when they under perform.

I understand that this is a new way for people to gather the latest information and opinions.

However, out of 12,895 tweets I’ve never tweeted a negative word about another person, business, company or city that I remember (I’m sure someone will take the time to actually go through all of them and prove me wrong).

It’s not that I haven’t thought it…I just haven’t tweeted it.

I’ve been frustrated at certain restaurants.

I’ve been angry with the service of certain airlines.

I’ve wanted to burn down a few hotels with a nasty tweet.

I’ve thought about firing off a passive aggressive tweet or two when someone ticks me off.

But I generally try to refrain.

There is a certain weight to our words.

Proverbs 15:4 The tongue that brings healing is a tree of life, but a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit.

I would also say the “blog” or the “twitter” or the “facebook” that brings healing is a tree of life.

There is an element of power in our words and it’s not accidental. Our Creator has shaped our hearts and souls to be impacted by the words of others. It’s part of your design.

I’m not even going to pretend to understand this spiritual principle, but you certainly can’t ignore it. The words that come out of our mouth or through our typing fingers float through the air and land on souls impacting the course and direction of their life.

GOD HAS DESIGNED THE HUMAN SOUL WHERE YOUR WORDS WILL EITHER DESTROY OR BUILD UP ONE ANOTHER.

It’s a free country. I love that you can tweet whatever the heck you want to. Just don’t ever think that your words don’t have an impact.

They do.

And more than you could ever imagine.

Have you ever found yourself wishing you could take some words back?

10 Billion Tweets

March 20, 2010 in Random Fun with 69 Comments

Twitter just celebrated its 10 billionth tweet. That is a lot of tweets.

Thanks to Mike Foster I saw this amazing graphic which provides us a glance at the breakdown of Twitter’s first 10 billion tweets courtesy of social media consultant and Mashable contributor Muhammad Saleem.

Despite the fact this graph shows that close to half of all tweets are pointless babble I’m still in love with this current form of social media. I’m meeting people I would never have met and having conversations I would never get the chance to have any other way.

Do you tweet? If so give us your twitter name so we can all follow you.

Should Churches Monitor Staff’s Twitter?

November 3, 2009 in Church Leadership, Leadership with 53 Comments

Kansas City Chiefs running back Larry Johnson has been suspended and banned from all team activities while NFL is investigating his shameful use of gay slur when he questioned coach Todd Haley’s football credentials in an exchange with one of his followers on his Twitter account on Monday (October 26). The NFL commissioner, Roger Goodell, said his twitter comments violated the league’s personal conduct policy

Johnson’s agent Peter Schaffer alleges the game check and other lost revenue would amount to a penalty of about $600,000 for the former two-time Pro Bowl player. Ouch! That will make you think twice before twittering next time won’t it?

This brings up an interesting point. I wonder how many churches monitor their staff’s twitter accounts? I wonder if any churches have twitter policies in place that dictate what they can and can’t say on twitter? If they twitter something inappropriate are they going to dock them their next 15 years of salary?

Maybe the deeper question here is do you think churches have the right to monitor their staff’s twitter?

While I don’t really “monitor” our staff’s tweets, I do follow them. It’s a great way for me to keep up with some of the smaller details of their life I might miss otherwise. Here’s a list of several of our staff who twitter. You should follow them. They’re a lot of fun.

Darin Richardson

Jarrod Morris

Can Twitter Kill Your Church?

July 15, 2009 in Cross Point Church, Leadership with 65 Comments

I read an article yesterday which said the movie “Bruno” decreased its sales on opening weekend by 40% from Friday night to Saturday night due in fact largely by the spread of bad reviews through twitter and other social media outlets.

Universal had high hopes for Brüno‘s opening weekend. Buoyed by the film’s robust $1.6 million at Thursday midnight screenings and impressive pre-buys of tickets on Fandango and other sites, a studio insider told industry blogger Nikki Finke on Friday morning, “If it holds up, we’ll do $50 million.” The Friday figures supported that optimism: Brüno amassed a sensational $14.4 million. But the movie plummeted nearly 40% its second day, to $8.8 million. Meanwhile, the next five movies on the chart — Ice Age 3, Transformers 2, Public Enemies, The Proposal and The Hangover — all saw substantial increases from Friday to Saturday. (Ice Age actually did better business than Brüno on Saturday.) Worse yet, Brüno‘s rating by CinemaScore, which polls moviegoers just after they’ve seen a film, was a C. That pretty much stands for Calamitous.

This article reminded me of the power of twitter. Our Church joined the twitter bandwagon a couple months ago by creating @crosspoint_tv so we could inform members and attenders of upcoming events as well as collect their instant feedback on all things Cross Point.

In addition, I’ve been able to welcome first time guests who twittered they were sitting in one of our services, helped assimilate people through twitter and become aware of and followed up with pastoral care needs through twitter. It’s also become an instant way to communicate prayer needs within our community.

For the most part the things I read about Cross Point via twitter are very positive. However, as I was reading this article I thought “but what if it wasn’t.” What if the twitter grace we receive today turns to twitter judgement tomorrow.

What if people in the first service come out and twitter “Today was a little slow at @crosspoint_tv. The worship was dragging and I didn’t understand a word of Pete’s message.” Would people on their way to the second service read that tweet and just choose to go to the Waffle House instead? How will the negative tweets impact others?

While twitter can be an awesome tool I think we have to be honest and say it could possibly have a downside. It’s always important to be aware of the pro’s and the con’s of your social media tools and I personally think the pros outweigh the cons. Truth be known you have no power over whether people twitter about your church, your book or your company. The only choice you have is whether or not you’ll engage in the conversation with them.

If you’re a business owner and you have no desire to hear how your products and services are impacting everyday customers… then don’t get on twitter. If your church is not interested in engaging in a conversation with the community around them about to how to more effectively reach them… then avoid twitter like the plague.

In reality twitter didn’t kill “Bruno”. Bruno killed “Bruno” by putting out a movie that didn’t deliver on what they promised. Twitter was just the social media megaphone which defined this reality for millions. Twitter won’t kill your church, your book, your movie or your product. Twitter might speed up the inevitable process though.

Do you twitter about your experiences with church, books, movies and retail stores?

Twitter is Blowing Up

April 21, 2009 in Friends with 174 Comments

I don’t know if you noticed but thanks to Ashton and Oprah Twitter is really exploding (Oprah just joined on Friday and already has 400,000 + followers). And while I wasn’t really excited about Oprah joining twitter I was pretty excited one of my favorite pastors ever, Andy Stanley joined twitter yesterday. Just one more way I can learn from his leadership.

In case you’re looking to follow someone besides Ashton and Oprah I thought I would give you guys the opportunity to follow each other. It’s an incredible way to network, learn, and share together!

If you’re on twitter just introduce yourself and leave your twitter name. Oh and I almost forgot, if you have a favorite twitter tool of some sorts you use to enhance the twitter experience tell us about it in the comments.

Go!

Meeting New Friends

September 30, 2008 in Cross Point Church, Friends, Leadership, Multi Campus, Religion with 17 Comments

I love conferences. I’m on my way home, but had a blast! I’ve spent the last two days at Sea Coast Church in Charleston, South Carolina, at the Multi-Site Exposed Church conference.

While each session was awesome at helping us wrap our minds around the mulit-site model, the best wisdom gained has been through the conversations we’ve had with friends in other chuches.

Between sessions Gary Lamb gave me some incredible words about an area of my life which is out of balance.

I had a wonderful dinner on Monday night with Dinno Rizzo, Mark Batterson and Greg Surratt and their teams. In one dinner these guys made my head spin as they challenged and encouraged me in so many different ways. After dinner I laid in my hotel room bed just trying to process it all. This group of pastors is on the front line of changing the church culture in America and around the world.

On Monday I had the opportunity to be interviewed by @murphy24 and @sarahgad on the topic of church leadership. Had a great time and they are developing an amazing tool that is going to impact Seacoast and eventually church’s around the world.

I also got to hang and converse with new friends like @joshsur, @dawnnicole, @geoffsurratt, and @shawnwood. They’re all fantastic individuals who are a lot of fun to follow on twitter.

Thanks to everyone for the advice, the wisdom, but most importantly for being the original person God created you to be. I look forward to sharpening each other more in the near future.

Have you recently met anyone who challenged you to look at something differently?

My Life In Snapshots

May 6, 2008 in Friends, Leadership, Religion with 27 Comments

At least once a day someone asks me, “What the heck is Twitter?” I usually find myself stumbling to explain. I’ve seen this video in a couple of different places and it explains it so well. So watch this….
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o&hl=en]

If you want to try “twitter” click HERE to get started. Warning: It’s highly addictive.

If you want to follow me on “twitter” click HERE. Warning: My life isn’t really that exciting.

If you’re wondering why you should twitter, you should read Michael Hyatt’s post from earlier this week. Michael is the brilliant president & CEO at Thomas Nelson Publishers here in Nashville. CLICK HERE to read.

Do you twitter?