Why Twitter?

I often get a puzzled look or blank stare when I tell people I like Twitter, Facebook, or blogging. Sometimes it's hard to explain what these things are to people who don't use social networking tools. Let me try a different answer today - rather than explain what they are, let me share some ways in which they've been a benefit over the past few months.

Thanks to Twitter, along with blogs, Facebook, and other web-based tools that build community I have...

• Made several new friends with similar passions that I would love to meet someday
• Received over a dozen new-release books for free, to review or from giveaway promotions
• Been able to ask questions and get thoughtful answers from some great minds and authors like Reggie McNeal, Nancy Ortberg, Matt Chandler, Steve Gladen,  Steve Saccone
• Helped other people out with technical questions
• Reconnected with some friends I haven't seen in years
• Had fun testing out some cutting edge technologies (like getting a Google Wave invite)
• Found mentors in areas I want to grow
• Attended some outstanding conferences "virtually"
• Shared pictures with friends and families from events, right from my phone
• Gotten an inside glimpse into the daily lives of many friends
• Got a new CD via a promotion on the day it was released
• Learned information helpful in doing my job at work
• Received dessert suggestions for restaurants while I'm there eating
• Been able to encourage many people when they were down
• Been encouraged and taught on an almost daily basis
• Learned about several critical prayer requests in real time and prayed for people across the globe
• Likewise had folks I barely know praying for my family in times of crisis
  
• Become aware I need to be able to communicate more concisely :)

So instead of answering the question of why I Twitter, I'm going to as you - why don't you?

Tribes, Assimilation and Connectivity

Last year I read Seth Godin's book "Tribes" and found it quite interesting, but I hard a hard time seeing how it could be put into practice, especially in a church or ministry context. Ok, people are getting connected in an increasing number of ways, community is being recognized as more important, but what do you do with that?

Todd Engstrom made an interesting post in his blog along these lines. Godin talks about Senator Bill Bradley's elements of a movement:

1. A narrative that tells the story of who the tribe is and the alternate future they are building
2. Connection between the movement leader and the tribe
3. Something to do, or actionable items

Todd found the second item to be most challenging in a ministry context, and adapted these elements for church as:

1. Narrative and alternate future = preaching and visionary leadership
2. Connection between leader and tribe = assimilation and “community”
3. Actionable items = mobilization

This stirred me to think the following...

• Narrative starts with preaching, but if it’s heard well, should result in stories from the tribe as they add to that narrative.
  
• Connection between people and the leader isn’t as important as connection among people, and connection to the shared vision
  
• Two models for actionable items: one (for a centralized tribe) is to have a structure that supports action consistent with vision; another is a more decentralized approach where individuals come up with their own actions. The former is a powerful organization, the latter is a movement.
  
• It's one thing for the leader to talk about the vision, but you know something powerful is happen when other ministry leaders and group leaders, and then their own people, are talking about the same vision.
  
• Today, might connectivity precede assimilation? The way I saw his blog post was via a tweet he made, which I only saw because I happened to make some twitter comments at a leadnet show we watched on the web. I think that in today's culture, there can be no assimilation without first come connectivity being established, and with some vision being caught by the new person, one that is already resonating with them. This community and shared vision leads to assimilation, which leads to greater community, and so it grows…
  
• This echoes something I learned in a recent class at Rockbridge Seminary - for many people today, belonging precedes believing - and this has deep implications for evangelism and assimilation.
  

The Show on Leadnet - Church Bull Session

Today Leadnet had a brief show and call-in program "Church Bull Session". This is a weekly show (Tues at 4pm) where Leadership Network's Dave Travis, Reggie McNeal, and Chris Willard will be shooting from the hip on a number of ministry topics and current events. I was able to ask a question by twitter as well as follow-up with a call-in question. I got to tell Reggie that I loved his book "The Present Future" and only had to throw it across the room once :)

I asked "What does missional leadership development look like in a church trying to be more externally focused". (Answers below are from memory, I don't have a transcript)

"It's about Deploy-and-Debrief, not Train-then-Deploy, and it's a very different mindset." In other words, you create opportunities for people to serve (especially outside the walls of the church), then intentionally talk about what happened afterwards. The traditional approach would be that you announce training, give people the skills to do something, then send them off to do it. 

Be intentional about what you recognize and celebrate. Be sure to put high emphasis on what is going on outside of the church. For example, when you recognize children's ministry, add "Not just you involved in ministry here, I mean everyone who in ministry to children. Teachers, stand up. Volunteer tutors at the high school, Foster parents, grandmothers who are caregivers, stand up and be recognized. You guys are doing wonderful work in children's ministry!"

I then asked about how to encourage a shift from ministry inside the church to outside...

Every member a minister was an important biblical teaching that came out of the reformation, but there's an important aspect that it misses. Every member of the church is a also a missionary, called not only to serve but to share the gospel to those lives they touch. Rather than a replacement of every member a minister, it's more of a change in focus in where they are deployed, and a greater sense of mission in what they do. It's not about finding a church ministry for everyone, it's about releasing people for service to other people where they are already deployed - serving in their community, among their family and friends. It's about encouraging the use of their time and spiritual gifts to touch the lives of those outside the church walls.

My next question: "How do you make the shift from equipping for internal ministry to releasing for external ministry and for developing the mindset of every member a missionary?"

Churches need to adopt the Home Depot approach - You can do it. We can help!  Too long we've had the attitude (implicit or explicit)  "We can do it. You can help."

Another idea is to bring in several community leaders over time - fire commissioner, police chief, high school principal, gang leader, and have them share what's going on the in the community and how they can help make a difference.

One other great comment made on the show, when another caller asked "How do you motivate people to get involved in the community?"

You don't! Give it up, stop trying! Instead... create a venue for service where they can actually do something. When they see that what they're doing is actually impacting lives, it will motivate them in a way you never could by talking about it. Change the behavior, leading by example, and the motivation will come powerfully and naturally.

For more on these ideas, you may want to check out Reggie McNeal's new book "Missional Renaissance: Changing the Scorecard for the Church." (I'm falling behind on reading, I really need to get this one myself!)

Facebook makes the world even smaller

I just got back from a business trip to Philadelphia, travelling with a co-worker. He noticed I was accessed my phone a lot and asked what I was up to. I ended up telling him quite a bit about Facebook and Twitter. He had signed up for a Facebook account to see someone's pictures but didn't get it. He hadn't heard of Twitter and after I described it, he thought I was even more crazy. When we stopped to eat dinner I chuckled 'I guess I better tell the world that I'm eating a spicy chicken sandwich at Max and Erma's."  He shook his head "Why on earth would anyone care?"  Mind you, I'm fairly new to Facebook and have only about a dozen Twitter followers (ltbaxter), so it was hard to argue with him. As we get on the plane less than 40 minutes later, I checked my mobile Facebook again. It was fun to tell him I got four responses, one person recommending their cookies, two others wishing me safe travels, and one more from Buffalo giving me the scoop on "real" buffalo chicken sandwiches :)

Even cooler, via Twitter and Facebook I noted a friend was reading a book while waiting at the airport. I told her that was a good book, and over the course of our connections we continued to update on book and flight progress. I mentioned I was now going through my connection in Cleveland and would be home before long. Finally, ending in Indy, I headed toward baggage claim. There was my friend with a broad smile - "I saw there was a flight coming in at the same time from Cleveland, was wondering if I would run into you here!" It just made the world seem that much smaller, and really surprised my co-worker. "Hmmm, maybe that stuff isn't so useless after all?!"  Also, my wife got to follow along via her Facebook account and the Twitterfox extension for Firefox. The neat thing was that it turned one of the quietest / loneliest of activities - business travel - and mobile social networking helped me feel connected with my family and friends (and the rest of the world) all along the trip, like I wasn't in it alone. Nothing earth shattering, but just one more tool useful in building community and staying connected.