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July 17, 2009
Tweet! It's your pastor
A few churches are using Twitter and Facebook to connect with their morons
By Yen Feng
<a href="http://www.straitstimes.com/STI/STIMEDIA/image/20090717/chc.jpg"><img src="http://www.straitstimes.com/STI/STIMEDIA/image/20090717/chc.jpg"></a>
When City Harvest Church member Vanessa Sng needed spiritual advice, she did not just pray - she tweeted. Moments later, there it was: 'It is the work of God!' tweeted back her pastor Kong Hee (left). -- PHOTO: CITY HARVEST CHURCH
WHEN City Harvest Church member Vanessa Sng needed spiritual advice, she did not just pray - she tweeted.
Moments later, there it was: 'It is the work of God!' tweeted back her pastor Kong Hee. Like most young Singaporeans today, the 20-year-old student uses Twitter, a micro-blogging service that sends short messages, or 'tweets', to other users online.
Followers tend to be friends and family, but these days, churches are taking to tweeting too.
The phenomenon has gained momentum especially in the United States, where during 'Twitter Sundays', congregation members are asked to tweet questions about the sermon for discussion afterwards.
But the online service is still in its infancy among churches here. A check on Twitter's website found four with active accounts, set up as recently as two months ago. The churches - City Harvest Church, New Creation Church, Heart of God Church and Hope Church Singapore - use it to share short biblical quotations and activity listings once or twice a week.
And the online gospel is going further. A search on social networking site Facebook, which first introduced its popular 'wall', 'poke' and 'tag' features in 2004, turned up 67 profiles of Christian churches here. About a third were set up only this year.
The number of people following the churches' Facebook and Twitter profiles online were a fraction of its real-life followers.
City Harvest Church, with 25,000 members, had 4,469 friends on Facebook and 1,359 followers on Twitter yesterday. Most were under 30 years old.
Pastor Seow How San of Heart of God Church in Eunos said Twitter enabled him to be a better caregiver to his congregation. Since the church began tweeting in May, nearly 800 of its 1,400 believers have signed up to listen - and tweet back.
'It was a conscious effort to get people to use it,' he said. 'As pastor, I need to know how people are feeling. Now I know how they feel, how they think, even what they do, eat and drink. Having Twitter really helps if you have a big church.'
Read the full story in Friday's edition of The Straits Times.
[email protected]
July 17, 2009
Tweet! It's your pastor
A few churches are using Twitter and Facebook to connect with their morons
By Yen Feng
<a href="http://www.straitstimes.com/STI/STIMEDIA/image/20090717/chc.jpg"><img src="http://www.straitstimes.com/STI/STIMEDIA/image/20090717/chc.jpg"></a>
When City Harvest Church member Vanessa Sng needed spiritual advice, she did not just pray - she tweeted. Moments later, there it was: 'It is the work of God!' tweeted back her pastor Kong Hee (left). -- PHOTO: CITY HARVEST CHURCH
WHEN City Harvest Church member Vanessa Sng needed spiritual advice, she did not just pray - she tweeted.
Moments later, there it was: 'It is the work of God!' tweeted back her pastor Kong Hee. Like most young Singaporeans today, the 20-year-old student uses Twitter, a micro-blogging service that sends short messages, or 'tweets', to other users online.
Followers tend to be friends and family, but these days, churches are taking to tweeting too.
The phenomenon has gained momentum especially in the United States, where during 'Twitter Sundays', congregation members are asked to tweet questions about the sermon for discussion afterwards.
But the online service is still in its infancy among churches here. A check on Twitter's website found four with active accounts, set up as recently as two months ago. The churches - City Harvest Church, New Creation Church, Heart of God Church and Hope Church Singapore - use it to share short biblical quotations and activity listings once or twice a week.
And the online gospel is going further. A search on social networking site Facebook, which first introduced its popular 'wall', 'poke' and 'tag' features in 2004, turned up 67 profiles of Christian churches here. About a third were set up only this year.
The number of people following the churches' Facebook and Twitter profiles online were a fraction of its real-life followers.
City Harvest Church, with 25,000 members, had 4,469 friends on Facebook and 1,359 followers on Twitter yesterday. Most were under 30 years old.
Pastor Seow How San of Heart of God Church in Eunos said Twitter enabled him to be a better caregiver to his congregation. Since the church began tweeting in May, nearly 800 of its 1,400 believers have signed up to listen - and tweet back.
'It was a conscious effort to get people to use it,' he said. 'As pastor, I need to know how people are feeling. Now I know how they feel, how they think, even what they do, eat and drink. Having Twitter really helps if you have a big church.'
Read the full story in Friday's edition of The Straits Times.
[email protected]
