Church Broadcasting

Recently, Church Marketing Sucks posted a blog entitled "Churches Aren't Paying Attention On Twitter."  Collide Magazine's Scott McClellan then posted his thoughts on the subject at Collide's Blog.

Here is a brief recap:
Mickey Mellan sent replies on twitter to various church twitter accounts.  Out of the 25 churches he contacted over twitter, only 3 bothered to reply.  A chilling study.

Collide's McClelllan commented,

My suspicion is that most churches prefer broadcasting to interacting. Think about it — our preferred communication mediums are one-way channels. We love sermons, direct mail, podcasts, billboards, email blasts, punny church signs, static websites, text message alerts, and worship bulletins. No response required, and if we’re being honest, no response desired. We wanna preach, but we don’t wanna listen. We like to broadcast our message, but we don’t like to hear what you think about it.

Now sometimes the church twitter message is simply texted in.  I know many friends who have only been on the twitter site to sign up for their personal account, and then text everything in.  But I have to say, I don't like the whole broadcasting feel.  It is a great way for church members to find out what is going on in the church, but what about the possibility to reach visitors, the lost?  

Twitter is not a one way street.  I don't think it was meant to be a one way street.  That's why you have features like the @ reply, the retweet, the direct message.  

I update Capstone's twitter many times, and I am guilty of simply broadcasting.  It is much easier, but Jesus never called us to easy.  Twitter, like Facebook, allows us to reach places we never could.  We take it for granted and use it as a secondary (or in some cases primary) bulletin. 

Do you update your church's twitter account?  Join me in changing the way we interact over the internet.  Let's stop broadcasting and start interacting.

Do you follow your church's twitter account?  Start interacting with it!  Know that it is a person behind the account.  After services, comment on how you liked the service, what you looked forward to, what you didn't like!  This can a revolution in the church.