Why You Should be Upset with John Piper

August 26, 2009

ORIGINAL POST: Last week in Minneapolis, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) made waves with their new progressive policies concerning homosexuals and now allow:

  1. Non-celibate gays to become clergy
  2. congregations to choose to do to recognize, support, and hold publicly accountable life-long, monogamous, same gender relationships.
  3. people in such publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous, same-gender relationships to serve as rostered leaders of this church

The ELCA is not the first mainline denomination to change their policies on such controversial issues.  The United Christ of Christ and Episcopal Church have made similar policies.  Every mainline denomination is struggling with how to take a stand for or against homosexuality in the church.

What should have made just as much news was well known Reform Baptist pastor and author, John Piper’s statement concerning the tornado that hit during the ECLA’s meeting:

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Posted by Alan Rudnick

I’m Not Sold on “Twitter Worship”

July 6, 2009

A variety of news outlets  have commented on the growing trend in churches: Twitter Worship.  Time, New York Times, and Switched have covered the movement.  If you do not know about this trend, I’ll try to explain it in two sentences.  Using the social networking site, Twitter, worship attendees interact with the sermon, worship, and music.  Some churches even display “tweets” on their projection screens and the pastor interacts with the micro comments during the sermon.  The UMC Board of Discipleship has a good overview of the pros and cons of using twitter and other technology in worship.   Even Josh Harris questions the use of Twitter during worship.  Despite the popularity of Twittering, many have asked the question, “Is Twittering during worship really worshipful?“  I am a pretty technology dependent person, but I’m not sold on Twitter worship.

This is a difficult question to answer because there are some things to consider:

  • Twittering in worship attracts younger worshippers.  A segment of the population that is greatly prized by churches.
  • A Twitter worship service can attract the unchurched or non-Christians.
  • Using Twitter creates more of an interactive worship experience, which is something that people want need.
  • People are quickly becoming more connected through technology, thus connecting through technology can be a way to reach people for Christ
  • Twittering during worship is encouraging people to be reflective about God.

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8 Comments | twitter | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Alan Rudnick