Digital Evangelism Issues

Twitter has taken personal sharing to a whole new level. It is the intimate aspect that people find so compelling. By contrast, businesses who have started Twitter streams about their products get minimal interest. But well-known people who Twitter can get zillions of followers.

The attraction of Twitter (to those who have space in their lives for yet more electronic messages) is its brief immediacy and apparent intimacy. People share their moment by moment emotions in a raw way that they would probably not do in the more thoughtful environment of a normal blog. ‘Tweets’ are more like talking than writing. And of course, every tweet is available online for the whole world to read, should it so wish. (See background information on Twitter.)

This means that you can search for tweets that contain keywords about a particular subject. This is a valuable strategy being used by Paul Watson of Reaching the Online Generation. Doubtless as marketers start to use similar strategies, it may lose its effectiveness. But for now, it means that you can easily connect with people on any topic you wish. This can include people who are tweeting about a personal life problem, enabling you to contact them and sensitively offer help.

Because you can also filter tweets by postal code origin, a church can even locate hurting people in its area! Paul explains how to do this below. Also scroll down past his technical explanation to read a moving example of compassion and ministry flowing through Twitter.

Here is an excerpt from the book I’m writing (publication due early 2010, working title The Six Strategic Elements for Starting an Online Ministry) that explains how to use Seesmic and Search.Twitter.com to ‘listen to the lost’.

Here is one quick way using the Seesmic desktop:

1. Sign up for a free Twitter account, if you do not already have one.
2. Download the free Seesmic desktop program and install it. (Note that Seesmic can help Twitter users in many other ways that described here.)
3. Add your Twitter account in the Seesmic desktop program.
4. In the top right hand corner of the Seesmic desktop, you will find a search box. Type in a word connected with a social object or social marker. I usually tell people to type ‘photography’, ‘picture,’ or other words related to photography, as an easy example to use.
5. Seesmic will search Twitter for any tweets using the word you entered into the search box. It will create a column for that word that automatically updates anytime someone uses that term.
6. If you want, you can click on their username in the Seesmic desktop and then again on their profile picture to visit their Twitter profile online. Then you can read their bio and perhaps visit their blog or website, if they list one.

If you don’t want to download the Seesmic desktop, you can use Search.Twitter.Com to do the same thing.

1. Go to http://search.twitter.com.
2. Enter your keyword in the search box and hit enter.
   Search.Twitter.Com will display tweets containing that search word.
3. Click on a username to visit that person’s Twitter profile.

If you use the ‘Advanced Search’ feature on the Search.Twitter.Com page, you can set your filter to pull tweets from people living in specific cities or countries. This is especially valuable if your organization wants to focus on connecting with, and meeting the needs of, people living nearby. You use the same listening strategies as above to listen to the needs of these geographically close communities. You can also use the same tactics to meet their needs, but you are more likely to connect in person.

1. On http://search.twitter.com, click on the ‘Advanced Search’ link next to the search box.
2. Type your search term in the ‘All of These Words’ box.
3. Scroll down to ‘Places’ and enter your zip code or city. Set ‘Within this Distance’ to something that makes sense to you.
4. Click on the ‘Search’ button at the bottom of the screen.

When I started listening online, I used the keywords ‘pray’ and ‘prayer’ to filter the Twitter stream. I wanted to see if people – Christian or not – asked for prayer when they faced crisis. They did, and I was quickly overwhelmed. I didn’t have enough time to listen to all the requests.

As I ‘listened,’ several of the requests moved me to prayer. Eventually, prayer wasn’t enough. I had to respond somehow and let these people know that someone cared enough to pray. More importantly, I wanted them to understand that there was a God who loved them and cared about what was going on in their life.

About the time I decided to jump into the conversation, a heartbreaking tweet came up on my monitor:

“Must stave off breakdown. It’s too much knowing my daughter’s going blind. I pray she sees her baby girl before that happens; if it must. March 30, 2008″

That tweet broke me. I knew I needed to respond, but how do you respond to something like that in 140 characters in a way that doesn’t come across as religious and trite. I prayed hard and then replied:

“@[her name] – God brought your tweet to my attention. He loves you. Praying for you and your daughter.”

To my surprise, she replied and thanked me for my prayers. Later on that evening she tweeted:

“Night y’all. Thanks for your care & prayers for my daughter [daughter's name]. I pray her blindness/migraines stop & she’ll see her baby being born. March 30, 2008″

I followed her on Twitter so that I could keep up with her and her daughter and see how God was going to answer my prayer. A few weeks later she tweeted:

“[Baby's name] was born @ 9:58 PM on 04/22/08. She’s a beautiful, healthy girl & [daughter's name] doing well. Thanks y’all for your best wishes. April 23, 2008″

She communicated that her daughter was able to hold her baby and see her when she was born. I was so excited. I remembered that 1 Chronicles 16:8 says, “Give thanks to the LORD; call on His name; proclaim His deeds among the peoples.” Basically that means that we get to point to things God does and shout, “Look at what God did! Isn’t He amazing!” I wanted to obey this passage, so I replied,

“@[her name] – Congratulations! Praise the Lord for answering our prayers! Glad she could see her baby!”

Later on that night she replied to everyone,

“I’m so tired. You’d think I had the baby. I truly thank everyone for your prayers, good wishes & support for [daughter's name] during her difficulty April 23, 2008″

A couple of weeks later she tweeted,

“My daughter’s eyesight is returning to normal since the birth of [her baby] on Earth Day (04/22/08). I appreciate all the prayers & love. Thanks May 05, 2008″

I praise the Lord for what He did in that woman’s life. After reading her bio and website, I realized she was probably not a Christian, even though she came from a Christian culture. I’ve long since lost contact with her, but I hope God continues to work in her life and draw her to Christ.

After that, I knew that the Holy Spirit wasn’t going to let me simply listen to what was going on online. I had to jump into the conversation.

Of course, it is possible to use a comparable approach with conventional blogs, using Google alerts to search for blog postings on specific personal needs or affinity interests, then gently and sensitively respond direct to the blog owner or by add a blog comment to the posting where appropriate.

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