Tweet That: Twitter’s Role in Spiritual Movements

Yesterday Johnny Hunt, who tweets as @johnnymhunt, sent out this tweet: “Great commission need with IMB, I challenge you to have a Christmas in August offering, take up a LMCO for shortfall! Who will join me? RT” Now if you do not understand the Twitter parlance I am hardly the one to craft a glossary. But “RT” means to “retweet,” or send to those in your network. In just a few hours churches I saw in my own limited network from at least six states had committed to take, or reported they had taken, a special offering for International Missions. I also heard from several at my Facebook as well from other states, not to mention getting a post from someone who was recently told they could not go overseas due to funding. And, I heard from one state convention employee wondering about the impact of a summer Lottie Moon offering on state mission’s giving.

This tiny little window from a time period of half a day, added to the growing call for a special offering for missions by my president Danny Akin at the Southern Baptist Convention, and a little article I wrote about it in June (among others), demonstrates how the new technology of social networking can be about more than the latest news of the death of a pop star. It can be the means of facilitating a movement by connecting those with a common belief and informing those of both a need and a means to meet that need. It allows word to spread about the need of our time and the work of God as well. While the news traveled more slowly in his day, Jonathan Edwards nevertheless noted the impact of hearing stories of awakening from other churches on extending the movement of God in his time.

Churches from a tiny one in eastern Alabama to Crosspointe (pastor James Merritt) in metro Atlanta are taking up the call. More and more churches no doubt will join in the grassroots movement. Real need travels in real time in a flattened world like ours.

Conversely, social networking  serves to hold people accountable as well. It was the blog world that held Dan Rather accountable when he went on a witch hunt of sorts of George W. Bush regarding his National Guard service. Now, various means of social networking help to squash those who would seek to distort the truth to bring harm to leaders with whom they disagree on the one hand while calling into account those who may be less than forthright on the other. For example, a campaign of sorts to focus negatively on Acts29 at the SBC did not fly; on the other hand, simply google “Clark Logan and the EC” to see a call for accountability at the Executive Committee of the SBC.

No doubt sudden news in the twitter world can be harmful, especially in reporting inaccurate news. But that can be corrected as quickly as a faulty Wikipedia insertion. What I see is the possibility for news of importance to go viral, for momentum to grow quickly about things that matter greatly.

Could it be that God might even use something as novel as twitter to fan the flames of revival in our day? Tweet that, and let’s see.