I saw this video over at ChurchCrunch and I think we can learn a lot from it. This is is Twitter’s co-founder, Evan Williams talking about how Twitter was originally a marginal side-project based on little more than a hunch and curiosity.
The project bloomed, and users found all kinds of creative ways to use the simplicity of Twitter to innovate and add value. Don’t know what Twitter is? You especially need to watch…
It’s worth your time. My thoughts after the jump…
What Can the Church Learn?
- Trust your hunches, even when there doesn’t seem to be a very justifiable reason. Curiosity and flexibility lead to innovation.
- Simplicity makes room for all the usages and ideas that you didn’t think of. Whether it’s your new web app or a new initiative at the church, the simplest answer is usually the best. Simplicity enables the community to take ownership. Twitter never would have amounted to much if it had been a closed system with no API.
- Listen to feedback – let the community tweak the system so that it works for them. If the new Sunday school curriculum doesn’t work, change it, tweak it, innovate. One size doesn’t fit all any more.
- People want to connect with each other if given a tool to do so. Any tool. No system or tool is perfect. Doing nothing is the only failure. Leadership has more to do with decisive action than perfect action. Stop worrying so much about having perfect community and perfect systems… just move ahead.
- If the gospel can become as viral as a wildfire, we can change the world.
What About You?
Let’s unpack this thing. There’s a lot here. You have the floor in the comments…
We really need to be using these kinds of tools. Somehow the Church got antiquated and technologically irrelevant in the last 10 years. Maybe it's people being scared of somehow getting polluted by porn or something. Sort of how lots of Christians won't go to a bar or nightclub for the same reasons. We should be thankful for the technological advancements of our time, and see them as humanity being what God has made us to be!
It becomes a matter of faith for us to remove all the obstacles that stand in our way so that we can fully use the tools of technology – broadband internet access, twitter, facebook, myspace, youtube, simulcasting, video conferencing, etc. If we aren't using, infiltrating and influencing these mediums with the Gospel, we aren't fulfilling God's call to subdue the earth and advance His kingdom!
Preach, man! PREACH!