Last week, I put a simple question out on Twitter and Facebook: Should Twitter be used during sermons?

The question was born out of reading an article in the Houston Chronicle Sunday which profiled churches that are using this technology, including my friend Kerry Shook and The Woodlands Church (formerly Fellowship of the Woodlands), whose innovation has always impressed me.  As innovative churches test the waters, and with the release of the uber-cool and very powerful YouVersion live by the guys at LifeChurch, the question of electronic interfacing during church is going to become more and more germaine.

The response to my question was both huge and overwhelmingly uniform. Nearly everyone said NO. And this is from people who have already embraced social media. After thinking on and praying through the matter, here are my thoughts.

Positives:

Embracing technology has historically been difficult for churches. And yet, embracing it, particularly when it is communication tech, is almost always the doorway to a huge breakthrough. My most popular post is on this subject. So I have to give some props to churches that are willing to try and use the brave new world of social media in order to reach and engage people with the Gospel. And the intention is noble: churches are asking, “how can we use social media to more fully engage our congregants?” Great question to ask.

Negatives:

If the problem is disengaged worshipers, I believe tweeting during the service might actually exacerbate the problem, rather than find a solution.

During sermons, Twitter distracts people who need to be fully engaged.

I’ve listed some negatives below, but they all center around one pretty strong opinion: During sermons, Twitter distracts people who need to be fully engaged.

1. Attention deficit: Studies show that Tweeting/texting/typing while driving makes you a more dangerous driver than a drunk one. You simply cannot pay full attention to your surroundings while tweeting. How much more should we be paying attention during the delivery of the one life changing message in the world? Yes, taking notes has been a practice of many. But during a really good message, I find myself giving up on notes and downloading the podcast later, so that I can soak up what’s going on.
2. Distanced worshipers. Have you ever tried to talk to a friend who is texting? “Wait just one minute please…” “Let me finish this one thing….” It’s like talking to someone who’s miles away. Is that what we want in church? Some time back, a world famous ENT doc told me that of all the senses, hearing is the only one that cannot multitask. The auditory nerve literally can only listen to one thing at a time. Peripheral hearing doesn’t happen. I believe that’s true during Tweets. Churches spend countless hours planning and praying for services that will engage worshipers. It seems to me that encouraging twitter during church just moves the congregation/audience farther away rather than closer in.
3. Other tweets. I’m not sure why churches would believe that if their congregants are asked to pull out their phones and tweet, that they would only tweet about church and/or holy things. Seems pretty arrogant to me. When I tweet, I usually have multiple conversations running at once, and I’m spending some time blocking the latest spammer who is following me, and am trying not to “win a Mercedes,” “get more followers,” or something of the like. Seems like we spend our time trying to create engaging worshipers in a message, but Twitter would probably disengage them.
4. Annoying future visitors. Your church’s hashtag may end up being dreaded by the outside world. I have a couple of well intentioned, tech savvy friends who constantly tweet quotes from messages or services they are hearing. Sometimes, those are good. But unless the tweet-er is really wise, I  just end up with a jammed up tweet feed and Facebook stream, dominated by a single person. I’ve even thought of blocking and defriending these folks just because I don’t want the logjam. Do we want our churches to be associated with that?

I am attracted to several good uses of Twitter in church. At Catalyst, a live feed asking for reactions to the messages was posted on screens between talks, and during breaks. This might be a great way to do things before and after services: posting prayer concerns, announcements, reactions to the message, thoughts on a text. I’m sure there are many ways I haven’t considered using social media in church. I applaud those who are trying and I will continue to push the envelope as the world changes.

But at the end of the day, I guess I’m the old stick in the mud on this one. I believe a better use of time would be praying for anointed messages, planning for them, and studying how to connect with folks during a message so that in a 30 minute span attention is captured, laughter and tears are heard, and souls are changed.

Twitter during sermons? I say no.

What do you say?