Dear Friends,
When the bike trip ended for me in Montana last summer, three others continued their trek across the country. Because I rode with them for nine consecutive days, I was still emotionally with them. One of the riders named Fred posted a daily log on twitter.com. He would write such things as: how many miles they did that day, the terrain, the weather, the wind, and other facts of interest. I ended up enjoying their journey as he described difficult days or wonderful days. He also mentioned other interesting things like their transitions across different states, their overnight stays at some United Methodist Churches, and the countdown to the last few days.
When they arrived at their destination, Fred’s twittering stopped. But then I was inspired to join twitter. I thought, what if I had a pastor’s twitter that would provide bits and pieces of what’s happening in the life of this church, some of my ruminations and Pastor Bob-isms, and/or other meaningful or noteworthy things. Hence, I decided to have an account and to post things regularly.
Thus far I have made some entries like the Sanctuary Renovation Project was approved. Another one was about what happened at a Young Adult event. Yet another was about attending a concert with the Couples Group. I even had a comment about being at one of the United Methodist Women’s circle meeting. It’s a way of letting people know what’s happening in the life of the church as seen through my limited activities.
So what is the benefit for the church follower? If you are out of town or on vacation, usually you have to wait for the El Portal to receive some news. Typically the news will arrive in your mailbox a week and a half after we distribute the finished product. But on twitter, you may receive a bit of information within seconds of it being posted. You won’t hear news about the entire church activities, but bits and morsels. You can either access information via computer and the internet, or through your phone if you have wireless internet.
I know that several church members are on Facebook, which is a social networking website. It’s a way of staying in touch with folks and a way of responding to them electronically. Pictures are posted there and conversation happens back and forth. Twitter is strictly text that is posted and exchanged. Each “tweet” is a maximum of 140 characters/letters long and there is no cost to join.
If you want to find me and follow, log onto twitter.com and you can look me up eppbob. This stands for El Prado Pastor Bob. You can also find it by going on the church’s website and clicking on the link. Happy texting and tweeting!
— Pastor Bob
