How Twitter Makes Me a Better Pastor
As a new 3/4 time rural pastor, I’m surprised to find that Twitter is a hugely important ministry tool for me. Without it, I’d be a much poorer pastor and would feel considerably less connected to supportive colleagues.
Before I began my position four months ago, I never would have guessed how helpful — to mind and soul — I’d find Twitter as a pastor. But here’s one simple real life example from last week. I was planning Deacon Training a few days before the meeting and I realized I had no idea whether I should give the new Elders and Deacons Book of Orders when they were installed. My gut said, “yes,” but that wasn’t the practice of the church — and those BOOs aren’t cheap. So I didn’t know what to do. In such situations, since my experience is fairly limited, I find it’s good to see what’s common practice in the church. So, I put out a Tweet:
do all elders and deacons get new copies of the Book of Order at their installation in your congregation? #pcusa
And within an hour, nine pastors and elders had tweeted back and told me the practice in their experience (incidentally, all reported giving the Book of Order to all elders and deacons).
I could have called my pastor friends around the country and asked the same question, but I saved a good deal of time and had a more public chat about things. Eventually, the thread branched into discussing elder and deacon training in general, which was helpful too.
One of the challenges of rural ministry is that it’s easy to feel like you’re in ministry all alone, unsupported by other colleagues. This is especially true for me as my congregation is located many miles from the next Presbyterian church (I’m thinking the next full-time Presbyterian pastor is at least 50 miles away, if not more). So, what a joy it is to be able to get feedback and support within minutes of a tweet.
I often find good articles from other pastors on Twitter, and support and am supported by others in prayer through tweets. Most importantly, though, I have an overwhelming sense that I’m doing ministry with friends and colleagues all over the place. When it comes down to it, Twitter expands and deepens my ecclessiology — it helps me see what I know makes what I know to be true intellectually, that the church of Christ is so much larger than my congregation. Through Twitter, I can see this church at work.
Sure, Twitter is not a replacement for in-person pastoral care, but it is at least a new and exciting form of pastoral support. Sure, my weekly in-the-flesh text study meeting with four local pastors is probably more essential to my ministry than Twitter, but Twitter augments each day with handy pastoral tidbits that make me a much better pastor.
So, to all pastors out there who think Twitter is just for fun, or simply ridiculous, I assure you it can be a fine ministry tool. Check it out, and @ me some time. Peace, from @ajc123
Connect Online
A little late now, but for what it’s worth I now give mine the BOO as searchable PDF… which is also what I use. Easier to find and print stuff! (and free)
Yeah, I used the pdf a fair amount in seminary, but I’m not sure it’s user-friendly enough. For teaching and learning, I find that having the entire BOO in front of you is necessary for some. Thanks, Robert.
I second the PDF BOO approach, and use it with all my new officers. I find it easier for Presbynoobs to get into, particularly because it’s keyword searchable, includes linked references, and is easy to update and effortless to distribute.
Twitter is fine…but I find FaceBook provides exactly the same functionality. Whichever way, some form of microblogging social network is a wonderful tool for pastors.
Adam- I hear ya on the tweets, but we have 1 entire congregation where only 2 people have regular access to phones with apps/email/computers- they are simply too expensive for our very poor, rural area (the other congregation we can email everybody- they don’t text/tweet) Im with ya on the pdf version of the BOO- I use it as a reference tool for writing agendas, cong meetings, etc- but dont use it to “read”- we are giving BOOs to new/active elders- and will do the BOC as well, when we get a little more money….I wonder if there is funding for something like this?
Good question re funding, Nancy. I mean, $10 for BOO? Does that mean someone is making money off of them? I’m not saying Twitter is for everyone, and I get the availability thing, but it does make varied connections even in rural places much more possible than before.
Facebook (and to a lesser degree Twitter) has been great for asking questions and getting fast feedback. They have also been helpful for keeping in touch with seminary classmates & friends from the pre-seminary world.
On the BOO, I prefer the PDF version for most things but the paper version is probably better for teaching. Another useful BOO format is the online searchable version of the annotated BOO (has a lot more detail than is needed for new officer training, but is often helpful for better understanding what the BOO is talking about).
[...] How twitter makes him a better pastor. [...]
Adam: Myself and a group of Episcopal clergy just finished an online course on Churchy News and the Social Media through Andover Newton TS. Your comments concerning twitter have done more to put the concept of twitter in perspective for me than anything else. Thank you for that. Now, if I can only figure out how to do it!
Anyone know how to do things like this?