I first heard the word "twitterature" yesterday, but I don't think Monica Hesse coined it. But I love that word.Some people write twitterature - clever 140 character twitters (better word than "tweets") but usually, the messages are banal and basic: I'm going to the mall. Need new shoes.
Sometimes the commonplace information conveyed on a twitter can be a pastoral care tool. If my sister twitters three messages today and they are:
Ugh! Flat tire on way to school. Scary man helped us.
J's got another ear infection. Four babies screaming in waiting room.
Dropped lasagne casserole on floor + dog ate it. Even the pyrex.
. . . then I know to call her later or send flowers. She lives far away and it's a way I can stay connected to her day to day life - which I want to do since she's one of my favorite people.
But twittering will not make us cool as a church and it's kind of embarrassing to think so. It's helpful at meetings. It's kind of fun to have a friend on the west coast "be" at our meeting on the east coast. But that and other technological updates will not help an organization that needs to rethink how we relate to each other on a deeper level as a community that wants to follow Jesus (whom we can't follow on twitter although imagine how cool that would be: bleeding woman won't let go of my hem.")
It feels like our own congregation is at a tipping point in terms of being the church one way (holding on to the culture that organized the church in 1947) and being the church in another way (noting 21st C. cultural cues and using them as a tool for ministry today.) But it's not easy. Some have not even noticed cultural changes that have been obvious to others for decades. In my own ecclesiastical tradition of rotating officers, we equip leaders to notice these signs but then new leaders emerge and the training often starts from scratch again. It's a little tiring.
But it's not about being cool or edgy. It's about being faithful. The people who long for what the church was 50 years ago are also faithful, but it was different in those days. I frankly like the messiness and openness of these days. But it's a little tiring to serve those of different world/church views. ("And this is why we take days off," she said to herself.)
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4 comments:
Is it a sign from God that my word verification word is "unhip"? I'm going to try to find you on twitter anyway.
Some things never change. Fifty years ago, when I was proposing the things that are traditional now, the elders in my long-established (175 years earlier) church were forever saying, "But we've never done that before."
I'm rootin' for ya.
my sister in law just finished her jr year of college. yesterday she told me that she would never be on twitter, because "twitter is for old people." jeez.
Interesting this came the same week as Meghan McCain's appearance on the Colbert Report when she said that the Republican Party will not be cool or relevant if they just start using Twitter. She said its about message and about understanding younger people.
I think your saying a similar thing for the church. Yes, we have a great message. But our actions do not show that - they show backbiting, politics, hypocrisy, and lack of love. Just blogging or twittering or whatever the next "in" thing is won't fix that. We need to live our message. And if we do that - we will likely do things like Twitter. But it will be in love and within message not branding the same stuff.
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