You know him, you’ve seen him – but interestingly you notice him, less and less. He is still there but he has just become noise in your life and you tune him out. He is scripture tweeting guy – he makes you feel tiny in your own personal devotion, he seems to read 1,000 words a second, and he isn’t afraid to Tweet about it!
Recently my son closed the door to our home office and my wife’s laptop (which routinely has 2 or 3 instances of quick books open and 27+ internet explorer tabs open) was silenced. I could feel the pressure of that poor abused laptop’s fan released from its duty of pressing against my ear drums. The amazing thing is that if you would have asked me prior to his closing the office door I would not have noticed that the laptop is freakishly loud, I’d simply tuned it out.
I know a guy on Twitter who is very similar to my wife’s laptop a constant and pressing source of noise. He has noble purposes and each morning he posts about 30 individual tweets that are snippets from the Bible. On the surface, this sounds like a great idea, doesn’t it (Isaiah 55:11)? But the problem is, people stop listening to him, they just simply ignore him. Especially someone who does not hold the Bible in reverence, who doesn’t necessarily believe it, to that person you’re a nagging annoying noise and you’re in effective at your original purpose (assuming they were to reach people for Jesus).
I’m not saying don’t post scripture. Post scripture – but remember, you’re in a social media channel, be social. A one way regurgitation isn’t social. It’s a Public Service Announcement at best and people aren’t on Twitter for those. They’re there to interact, to be informed of current events, and to learn what is new (at my Church we say Twitter is Areopagus, Acts 17:21).
When you share scripture try to maintain a ratio that keeps a healthy relationship between human posts that you write or RT of others to scripture quotes. When sharing scripture consider also sharing a story that gives personal relevance of the scripture, tell why that verses is meaningful to you and give a link to the scripture for people to read themselves .
Church we need to relate to people online. Jesus walked and talked with people, he could have hovered over their heads and trumpeted truth – he didn’t, he walked with them, and talked with them, he gave parables and stories from their culture, he related to them.
Don’t be that guy – don’t be my wife’s laptop fan talk to people and not at them – engage and share from your life. Tweet on Tweeps, Tweet on!
2 Comments
John, thanks for writing today's post. Engagement and talking WITH people is key in social media (and offline as well).
My brother – I've been increasingly convinced and convicted of this. Paul in Acts 17 was BROUGHT into the heart of cultural thought and intelligent discussion of the day, he didn't press himself in. We need to be engaging, salty, and light filled.
Grace and peace,
Pastor John