Twiblestudy
That’s right. For a little over an hour this morning, the term “#twiblestudy” was the top trending topic in the twitterverse.
After this blogattical I am constantly asking God how to take online community deeper into Him.
So while I was studying James 2 this morning, verse 17 was really resonating inside my heart.
An idea popped in my head to share and discuss via twitter. Not a new concept. I know.
But why not track the conversation with the hashtag #twiblestudy so we can see all the great application?
Making sure we discuss how to apply James 2:17 to our lives Today.
Within minutes it was the hot trend on Twitter. Tweets discussing the word of God 140 characters at a time.
We had 12 people not in the same faith system as me DM me to tell me that they thought it was amazing.
We had 3 people not in the same faith system ad me DM me to tell me it was humorous.
We had 1 worship pastor reply he was embarrassed by it.
And we had over 225 people discussing how James 2:17 is going to impact their lives today.
All inside of 50 minutes.
Whatever the response, life is too short not to use the technology in front of us to deepen our faith.
So look for another #twiblestudy tomorrow.
And while responding via twitter make sure you tag #twiblestudy so that we can track the discussion.
The whole world saw us discussing God’s Word this morning and I’m proud of you for it!!!
Well done, Los
"Whatever the response, life is too short not to use the technology in front of us to deepen our faith."
trudat!
Glad you heard from God and followed His direction on this. It was amazing!
way to go man!
Great job! Keep up the good work
Thanks for leading the way. I enjoyed participating and learning from others.
Such a great idea. Awesome to see that an online Twitter Bible study trended Twitter this morning.
This is a great example of leveraging culture to further the Kingdom.
By focusing on Gods word and His desires for our lives, we can use these tools to make huge impact in the life of the Church!
Bring it on, Los!
"We had 1 worship pastor reply he was embarrassed by it."
Embarrassed by us, or by himself?
Was he embarrassed by the use of twitter for that purpose or because it hit home for him?
Someone embarrassed at discussing the Word of God 140 characters at a time!? Carlos, you took this blogatical for a reason, and now YOU are putting your faith into action. How awesome is that? Sometimes I feel I'm not listening enough for those little nudges God is giving me. Like the nudge to start reading blogs like yours (it's all Brody's fault) and connecting with people I've never met. It has been an amazing 5 months and I have learned so much and met so many. Keep it up. I don't think God is embarrassed. He is excited. 140 characters at a time! /
James Two is my favorite chapter in the entire Bible, Carlos.
Thank you for spreading the word. We're living in a new age, filled with new opportunity, and while certain fellow members of our faith may not understand the implications behind the importance of getting the word out in this realm, I applaud/commend you for doing so.
I'd much rather get people talking about Jesus and God stuff than Paris Hilton or Manny Ramirez, and transparency is a beautiful, beautiful thing in the eyes of the Savior. Much love to you and yours, and keep doing what you do.
Way to follow the plan God has laid on your heart!!!!!
actually God already twitters or havent you heard??? @bigguyinthesky
(but not really, he's not got unlimited text yet)
I've been anxiously waiting your return, KNOWING God had something awesome in store, and He never disappoints! I love where this is going and can't wait to see the future.
Good stuff. I was actually able to use this as a great application for twitter in a discussion for someone who thinks twitter is dumb. Great idea!
Awesome. Glad I got to be a part…
Its been a good morning so far to see the #twiblestudy =] Let's keep it up . . Not ashamed to openly discuss the Bible for all the world to see.. =]
The doubters and cynics are always going to be there. That will never change.
Just keep walking that road with the directions God gave you. This community will be blessed.
great job
What an amazing thing. Go @loswhit
Just thinking aloud: can't we all start our own @twiblestudy by posting just one verse that spoke to us every day? That would take this to a whole other level…
Let's see if we can get the Word of God as top trending topic for a week, or a month or…
Amazing stuff Los. Love it.
Thank you for leading the way Los…..was fun to be a part of it, and I hope you urge us all to study along with you frequently with #twiblestudy. Welcome back!
This is authenticity right here.
While I did participate in the twiblestudy this morning, my concerns are many about this as an effective way of reaching folks, or enriching the lives of those who participate.
First of all, (and by far the biggest issue in my mind) 140 out-of-context characters are potentially dangerous… without posting 6 straight tweets (which defeats the purpose of a micro-blog format like twitter), you aren't able to explain yourself, and, let's face it–James 2:17 is a topic where you need to be able to explain yourself. As my tweet said, the most important part of that verse is the implied object of our faith, the finished work of Jesus. If people walk away from the twiblestudy thinking in any way that Christians are all about working to earn God's favor, they've totally missed it. If, on the other hand, they understand that Jesus Paid it All, and their faith in that amazing gift fuels their work, they have gotten it. But it took me 407 characters (3 tweets) to clear that up.
Secondly, while I am all about making God famous, and his word relevant to the culture, I am skeptical of making the goal "top trending topic" so that people see it. We just need to guard our hearts against arrogantly thinking that any press is good press for Jesus. We aren't selling Jesus.
All of that to say I am not totally against the idea. As I said, I participated. I just think it needs to be approached with caution and discernment.
No arrogance here. Just wanting to discuss scripture.
I think this goes to point one of my previous post.
Sometimes we sit too long on this stuff.
If we are growing by discussing scripture, then let us grow.
The beauty of 140 characters or less is that it forces us to really pick the best words. Sometimes we try too hard to describe what God simply states. An example…God is love. We as humans then want to to explain that further. God is love because He did this and that and we should be like Him but not when people hurt us or when it's hard or when it's uncomfortable. And then our discussion becomes us cushioning things or rearranging words to comfort us in our sin.
I think the 140 characters makes us truly look at the verse and find the Key point. And simplifying the reaction in our hearts to one sentence we can carry with us for the whole day, allowing our brains to go back to it and continue learning and tossing the topic around in our hearts.
I think this study invited people of all faiths or no faiths to partake if they want, to read the responses and ask questions or email those who have something. I think this is more an outreach to push Christ followers to follow Him in all aspects of their life more than reach the lost, although I believe many will be reach by seeing this or as an outpouring of Christians beginning to actively live their faith.
Your concerns are legit. but sometimes I think we just need to simplify and act.
Please keep praying that this idea and concept will ignite an authentic response in Christians and begin to expand the Kingdom by living out His love and faith 140 characters or less
I agree that we should not try to explain what God states. But God's statements are always in context. And "Faith without works is dead" outside of a context is potentially dangerous, just like "Jacob I Loved, Esau I hated" is potentially dangerous out of context. God does clearly state things, but has put them in the greater context of the whole of scripture.
I appreciate your reply, and your heart to simplify. We just have to be sure that when we distill things down to two or three points, that those points still reflect God's heart as revealed in all of scripture.
because i am genuinely curious, and not being judgmental, do you bring up these concerns b/c you have personal experiences of reaping consequences of "dangerously under explaining scripture" and "making God infamous?" or perhaps developed a bad taste because of others who have?
Well, in the interest of full disclosure, I bring them up as one who is a bit of a theological neat-nick. I have a pretty sensitive radar for these things, and in the past I have been very guilty of "bumper sticker churchianity" where we take a verse, slap it on the side of a pack of gum, and call it holy. And I think it alienates us from the culture we are attempting to create and influence. So any time I see a trend toward pulling things out of context, my radar goes off.
I should clarify that i don't think that is happening in this case, just that in some of the comments here I see that tendency, and in some of the tweets I saw that tendency.
Additionally, as a person with a Bachelors degree in Religious History, focusing on early American religion, I can tell you that many off-shoots of Christianity (Mormonism, Jehovah's Witness, Shakers, Millerites, Branch Davidians, and others) started as one person took one verse (or group of verses) and poorly explained it. Or they gained followers because those followers had a poor understanding of scripture. What we think about God and scripture matters. And context matters.
Again, not trying to rain on the parade, I actually thought it was a neat idea. Just needs to be approached with a certain level of discernment.
I didn't see anyone trying to "explain the scripture" in the #twiblestudy. I saw hundreds of people talking about how the verse has impacted their thought process today. The scriptures are almost always going to impact people in different ways. The beauty of using Twitter as a medium to discuss that impact is that we're able to see how God can use one verse to impact people in multiple ways.
Very cool idea…although I probably wont be a apart of the live responses only because i would have to get up at 5:30am. West coast folks!! Man that is early. loved reading the responses
I am with ya brother!
Maybe we should start a west coast #twiblestudy . . . I am game if others are.
http://twitter.com/KevinMartineau
May be time for some self-examination for those who would laugh or complain about studying God's word.
Will you be doing this again? I think it's a great idea! What time? I'm a (soon to be) youth pastor, and am really thinking through how we can use Twitter to communicate and connect with our students.
for some reason i thought this was an all day thing, for whoever stumbled upon it at whatever time. are there ground rules yet or are you flying by the seat of your skinny jeans?
very cool, I'll try to add my input tomorrow and be a part of something bigger than just me
If only the majority of the church attenders took this approach..
Wondering how many people who read and/or participated in this conversation this morning actually went out and did something for God/others today. I think that might be a statistic to track rather than just looking at the popularity of the conversation among believers. Christians talking about the importance of living Christianity is still not living Christianity. I just sayin'…
I made it up. Around 8 this morning. Just responding to my study, I searched for twiblestudy and no one had coined it yet, so I did. LOL
Tomorrow's Twiblestudy will be at noon for the east and west coasters
Agreed.
True. But hopefully it will spur action. Consistant time in the word does that for me. Not just one day in the word.
I will precede the following question with a disclaimer. This is an honest question being asked with genuine curiosity and without judgement by a teacher, writer and student of leadership that is fascinated by influence and its use among leaders. Now to the question…
Do you mind if I ask why – of all of the observations/takeaways you might have gleaned from your rather wonderful experience you had this morning with people who respect and follow you – it was the popularity of the experience itself, rather than action, service and person that it pointed to that you found yourself compelled to highlight?
Quite simply, it showed me that 225 people could discuss a scripture from around the world in a matter of minutes. For my missionary friends in Kuwait, this is invaluable. The level of connectivity is exciting. It by no means is the end nor is it the means to the end. It is quite simply, a tool to encourage one another. Whether one take initiative and lives out the gospel today or tomorrow I will never know. Yet because of that lack of knowledge I will not stop encouraging people who spend the majority of the day trying to find something witty and humorous to say, to spend time in His Word. It may be the only 5 minutes that day they spend.
That may be the next Twiblestudy…
If you go back to original question/tweet it was this…
"Let's try something tweets.Call it #twiblestudy I'll drop a scripture, you respond with personal application for TODAY " http://twitter.com/loswhit/status/1335981808
The personal application was the most amazing thing I saw in the responses.
But again. I could not have written all that in 140 characters.
Great thoughts.
"Whether one take initiative and lives out the gospel today or tomorrow I will never know. Yet because of that lack of knowledge I will not stop encouraging people who spend the majority of the day trying to find something witty and humorous to say, to spend time in His Word. It may be the only 5 minutes that day they spend."
I know I do not know you, but it is clear that you have the ear and the respect of enough people to attract this kind of dialog on the fly. What a gift. What a responsibility. The intersection between fame and faith is such an odd thing. You may not know what folks are doing as a result of this network that the Holy Spirit has inspired you to create, but I think they would gladly tell you. And what a great witness that would be. Stories of actions and service – not only in support of one another, but in service to the communities where we live inspired by this online community. Best to you with this new endeavor. I look forward to witnessing the fruit it bears.
check out #RTB Rok The Box It's a tweetup using talkbox to cover topics
I love this idea and it's definitely inline where i'm at online. Nice job of using your online "juice" to push it back towards God. I like it.
Love the idea. It's true, we cannot ignore the power that technology gives us to spread the Word. I'm so glad I serve at a church who understands this! Looking forward to connecting at the Orange Conference.–Anna
For what it's worth, I'm embarrassed of the pastor who's embarrassed of using technology to facilitate a Bible study. Seriously. Embarrassed.
Amazing. I followed yesterday. it was awesome to see some alternative takes on that verse. I say alternative, only because all to often I cant think past the surface meaning. so yesterdays twiblestudy was a real eye opener for me (It is even a cool word to say – twiblestudy)
Oh and I fully get your reasons for 're-time-zoning' but it moves the twiblestudy right out of my time zone
it puts it at seven PM here which is right in the bath-the-kid-put-her-to-bed-finish-making-supper zone. I'll still follow, but about 12 hours behind.
I love that the people who were not of the same "faith system" and thought it was amazing outnumbered the "worship" pastor who was embarrassed by this–unfortunately it seems like that's the name of the game when it comes to trekking forward and using technology to enhance outreach. =)
Wow…seems quite interesting. I would have never imagined such a thing possible
I love the way you always take it to the next level! Way to go Los!