The Pastor’s Guide to Twitter: 10 Tweets to Impact Your Church
- Eric McKiddie Pastoralized.com
- Published Oct 23, 2013
Not knowing what to tweet is a common obstacle for pastors who want to impact their church through Twitter. Without a plan, your tweets will lack purpose, or you won’t tweet at all.
When I first joined Twitter, I waited several days before I finally tweeted something. I was clueless about what to post and scared of saying something stupid!
But then I noticed pastors like John Piper (@JohnPiper), Mark Driscoll (@PastorMark), and Rick Warren (@RickWarren) constantly tweeting helpful links and encouraging comments. I realized I had to take advantage of Twitter to lead the church.
The good news is that you don’t have to be a Warren, a Piper, or a Driscoll to serve your church through Twitter.
You don’t even have to be a pastor.
You may be a deacon or deaconess, a small group leader, an elder, or none of the above. Whether you hold a position or not, these ten suggestions will enable you to intentionally lead your church through Twitter.
1. Tweet to break news about how God is working in your church. Tweet about your church’s baptisms, small group gatherings, or other church events. Include pictures.
2. Tweet to share the content on your church’s website. If your church website has a blog, tweet a link to new articles when they are posted. If you have multiple blogs on your church site, tweet each pastor’s article.
3. Tweet to build anticipation for Sunday’s sermon. Tweet one-sentence previews of your sermon as you prepare it. Your contagious excitement for the coming message will build your church’s anticipation.
4. Tweet to inform your church about the ministry world. Your people don’t read about the Bible and theology as much as you do. But there is content on the Web that will benefit them. As you read helpful articles and blogs, tweet the links. It will keep your congregation up to date biblically and theologically.
5. Tweet prayers for your church. I don’t mean that you should publicly pray for private issues. But as you personally pray for your church, tweet some of your requests. It will encourage your people to see how you are praying for them.
6. Tweet to start a prayer chain. There may be times when an emergency strikes, making urgent, public prayer appropriate. Tweet the prayer request, and ask your congregation to retweet it.
7. Tweet to keep the vision of your church in front of your people. If you don’t constantly communicate your vision, your church will forget it. Twitter is a great way to remind your congregation why your church exists, and how you are moving forward.
8. Tweet quotes from what you are reading. As you read the Scriptures, or books on the Bible and theology, tweet quotes that impact you. This is kind of like #4, except here your congregation benefits from what you are reading offline, too.
9. Retweet the other pastors and leaders of your church. When someone else in leadership tweets something good, retweet it yourself. This demonstrates the partnership shared among the leaders, and also reinforces the values you want to cultivate in your congregation.
10. Tweet to remind your congregation that you’re a real person. Tweet funny things your kids say, when you take your wife out for a date, and when your basement floods. Identifying with your church in this way will make them more receptive to your teaching, care, and leadership.
It will not take long for you to see the impact your tweets have on your congregation. As folks shake your hand on Sunday morning, they will not only say, “Thanks for the sermon!” They will thank you for that link you shared, too.
