Tuesday, June 09, 2009

Twittering your mission

twitter_logo_header One of the ongoing, though low-profile, debates that we have been having here at The Voice of the Martyrs is about the value of Twitter in our pursuit of fulfilling our mission of glorifying God by serving His Persecuted Church.  Some of us (like me) are open to using it; others have yet to be convinced.  John Piper recently wrote on his ministry’s approach to this social network phenomenon.

I see two kinds of response to social Internet media like blogging, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and others.

One says: These media tend to shorten attention spans, weaken discursive reasoning, lure people away from Scripture and prayer, disembody relationships, feed the fires of narcissism, cater to the craving for attention, fill the world with drivel, shrink the soul’s capacity for greatness, and make us second-handers who comment on life when we ought to be living it. So boycott them and write books (not blogs) about the problem.

The other response says: Yes, there is truth in all of that, but instead of boycotting, try to fill these media with as much provocative, reasonable, Bible-saturated, prayerful, relational, Christ-exalting, truth-driven, serious, creative pointers to true greatness as you can.

Together with the team at Desiring God, I lean toward response #2.[click here to read the rest]

Let me know what you think. And if you are a Twitter user, why not start following us?

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4 comments:

  1. Matt Keegan9 June 2009 at 14:41

    I'm glad that you're on Twitter, finding that you provide useful information about what is going on in the world beyond the west, particularly with what some of our Christian brethren must endure.

    Twittering, like anything else on the web, can be used wisely or foolishly. VOMC seems to have opted for the former despite the preponderance of the latter.

    Thank you for keeping me informed and God bless you.

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  2. Michelle10 June 2009 at 08:39

    I disagree with John Piper's perspective.

    The world is changing and information is flowing in different and faster ways.

    I appreciate all the information I get from your blog and your twitter updates remind me of blog posts or other information I may want to know about or read more about.

    I still love to read and think that reading books is very important, but social media can add to our lives as long as we don't abuse it and use it in a way that enhances the media we follow.

    Please don't stop twittering or blogging! :)

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  3. Glenn Penner10 June 2009 at 09:15

    Actually, Michelle, you agree with Piper. The points you made are pretty much the same ones he did :)

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  4. Anonymous10 June 2009 at 20:06

    I actually used Twitter during my last mission trip to record our activites (where applicable) and use as a sort of diary.

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