There are so many social outlets on the Internet that it is impossible to keep track of them (and there are myriad Christians would be best to avoid). However, it is impossible for the "called out" to follow the Great Commission and ignore a service like Facebook with "more than 500 million active users," especially since "50% of [their] active users log on to Facebook in any given day."¹ Another up-and-coming social network is Twitter, whose traffic more than doubled this past year and had "more than 92 million unique visitors...in June 2010."²

Whereas Facebook has many built-in features...Twitter’s claim-to-fame is simplicity and brevity–you only post your thoughts in plain text and anything you say must fit within 140 characters. (Having said that, there are plenty of ways to point to longer articles, images, videos, etcetera within the space constraints.) Although you can use shortcuts with various levels of crypticness (e.g. BTW, gr8, LOL) and leave out letters when your followers are likely to understand regardless (e.g. "2 pastors serving in churches of under 300 ppl: Dont envy th mega-churches. B thankful that we actually know th ppl we r called 2 minister 2" – an actual tweet by @sjcamp), it’s hard to say a lot within 140 characters...especially since punctuation and spaces also subtract from that limit.

So, what is Twitter good for? I find it really handy to watch for technological announcements of interest; view quick inspirational thoughts; keep track of my favorite bands and software providers; get pointed toward odd, humorous, or impactful articles, pictures, and videos; and watch the pulse of the Internet–if something big occurs it is very likely (if you follow a good number of people) that somebody is going to tweet about it.

So, what is Twitter not good for? Beyond that which is obviously difficult to do within 140 characters, one use I see too frequently that it fails miserably at is "speaking the truth in love" (Ephesians 4:15, ESV). On top of the fact that written communication is already suboptimal for conveying emotion...Twitter seems to encourage a mob mentality, especially with public figures. Famous human says something kind of dopey (in Twitter or elsewhere), person #1 responds with some level of condemnation, some of their their followers react with equal or greater shock (and/or denunciation), and, like the old Fabergé Shampoo television commercial, they tell two friends, and they tell two friends, and...exponential reproof-growth!

A recent victim is Rick Warren, "America’s Pastor" at Saddleback Church, and author of "The Purpose Driven Life." He was publicly discussing his church’s success with a woman...and the stream went like this:

Mary, it's true. Over 10,000 Saddleback members havenow served in missions overseas through our network & P.E.A.C.E. plan

For 30 yrs our plan was to turn spectators into participators,consumers to contributors,an audience into an army.It worked!

And then...somewhat unwisely...he followed with:

I challenge any church in America to match the spiritual maturity, godliness & commitment of any 500 members of Saddleback

Boom! The Christian Twitter-sphere exploded! For his detractors it confirmed what they already knew about him–and, I imagine, even his "fans" were left scratching their heads. Personally, I consider Rick a conundrum; I find many of his approaches disturbing, but cannot say he is outside our fold. That day I posted this:

@RickWarren Did you really mean to boast in your challenge to other churches versus Saddleback?

No response (and I didn’t expect it from someone with over 132,000 followers).

The next day he started defending his ill-advised tweet (and in fairness to him...with a legitimate biblical argument), so I posited:

@RickWarren Wouldn't it have just been better to admit a poor choice of words? If not, why did you delete the tweet that offended?

Again, I was not expecting a reply...but...

@AlanCult I delete tweets when people misjudge motive.It's a waste of time to blog a full explanation to those who want to argue

What do you think? Does that sound like someone who deserved the outrage vetted at him? Could you survive in an environment where ever statement you make is dissected to surgically locate heresy?

That’s something to consider before you hit "send" or "submit" on that next electronic missive...or react to words that arrive in your inbox, feed, timeline, etcetera. Doesn’t everyone at least deserve a "can you clarify?" chance?

Even God, reacting to Jonah’s "dopey" exasperation at mercy being shown to Nineveh, took the time to ask, "Do you do well to be angry?" (Jonah 4:4)

Summarizing in 69 characters too many: "‘Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?’ He said, ‘The one who showed him mercy.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘You go, and do likewise’" (Luke 10:36-37).

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