Does Social Media Create Authentic Christian Fellowship?

I coach my daughter's Upward cheerleading squad (Upward is a Christian-based sports program). At each practice we have a devotion, recite Scripture memory verses, and pray.

This season's theme has been light. I'm sure you can guess what we've discussed: God is light, live in the light, walk in the light, moving from darkness to light, and so on.

This week's devotion was centered around Christian fellowship. Our memory verse this week was

If we live in the light, we share fellowship with each other (1 John 1:7b).

The verse in its entirety and from the ESV is this:

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7).

I thought our week's memory verse was a perfect tie-in to this week's Faithful Bloggers' discussion on the use of social media to grow our blogs.

Obviously, Facebook and Twitter are social media—meaning they are designed to function best when people are engaging others and giving of themselves.

But I got to wondering: How do these interactions contribute to authentic Christian fellowship? Or should it even matter?

I'll answer the second one first: Yes. I think it does matter.

Created for Community

We know that God created us for community. According to the verse above, walking in the light with others who are walking in the light brings fellowship. We need each other for encouragement, especially in the Blogosphere.

I have actually seen my activity on Facebook and Twitter contribute to authentic Christian fellowship. I wrote about the opportunities for prayer and worship as I engaged in a few communities on Facebook.

And who would have thought that only 140 characters (typed in the form of a meaningful Bible verse or quotation) would be just the word I needed for encouragement on a difficult day?

Finding Courtney and Kelly here at Faithful Bloggers has been the beginning of wonderful Christian fellowship that only God could have orchestrated.

So I would say, YES! Authentic Christian fellowship is not only possible through social media; it's inevitable when you approach your participation with that as your goal.

Use these and other social media platforms to invite your followers to walk with you in the light. When you do, you'll find authentic Christian fellowship.

How has your participation in social media brought you into authentic Christian fellowship?

Image: www.crestock.com

Use Twitter to Grow Your Blog

Most Twitter users I know fall into one of two camps: completely overwhelmed or hopelessly addicted. I've been in both spots myself. But I think I've finally found a happy medium. I enjoy tweeting, and I've had some blog visits, solely from my links posted to Twitter.

Once you're up and running on Twitter:

• Use Tweetdeck or HootSuite or a similar application to keep all your contacts organized. Sorting your contacts into groups will allow you to closely follow those conversations of most interest to you. The Lists function on Twitter performs a similar function and is also useful when using Twitter through the web.
• Search for keywords and/or hashtag (#) terms to find conversations about topics of interest to you. This is particularly helpful to "introduce" you to potential readers for your blog.
• Monitor hot topics, issues, and questions for possible blog post ideas.
• Ask a question to get people interested in your topic so they'll click to your blog to read more. Resist the temptation to just tweet the ordinary, "New Blog Post" tweet. (Read more ideas like these in this article* by Chris Brogan.)
• As I said above, I think Twitter can be quite addictive. My best tactic for this is limiting myself to short bursts of tweeting. If possible, set aside twenty minutes morning, noon, and night to tweet. Engage in conversation, re-tweet interesting posts, and follow people who follow you. I don't get to do this consistently, but when I do, I usually always add at least ten followers.

What are your favorite aspects of Twitter? How has Twitter helped your blog?

And don't forget to follow @faithfulbloggrs ;-)

*This article is featured on a website that does not necessarily contain Christian content.

Christian Tweeters

Are you looking for Christian twitters to follow?  I always am.  Over the weekend I saw someone tweet about Twellowship and thought I would give it a try.  Basically by signing up you agree to follow all the "VIP" members and 20 other members that have signed up.  Supposedly all the members are Christians. Signing up was easy to do, just enter your Twitter username and password.  You are then presented with a page that allows you to automatically follow the required members.  After you have follow the required number of members your Twitter profile now appears as an option for new members to follow.

The "VIP" membership is a paid option that guarantees you new followers.  You are basically paying for followers and that is not something I will do.  But as a regular member there is not a payment required but you are allowing Twellowship to send tweets out of your account every Friday about Twellowship.  I didn't care for this either.  To not have the automatic tweets sent you have to upgrade to the "VIP" membership or close your account.

I like the idea of the Twellowship but don't really care for the way it has been executed.  Have you used it and if so, what's your opinion?

Should You Join Sponsored Tweets?

There has been a lot of talk lately about making money on Twitter with sponsored tweets. While there are a couple different sites that offer you money for placing ads in your tweets, the one I have been reading about lately is Sponsored Tweets by IZEA.

Before I blogged about them and shared with you all my opinion, I wanted to give the site a test drive. Signing up for the site was very easy. You simply authorize Sponsored Tweet access to your Twitter account. You also have the option of signing up by email. Sponsored Tweet notifies you via Direct Message when you have offers, when your tweets have been approved, and when you have been paid.

My main concern about tweeting ads is being able to maintain my honesty and Christian character. I don't want an ad to undermine my testimony on Twitter. As Karin said in a guest post, "When we call ourselves Christians we are representing our Lord in all that we do and all that we say."

So I really liked that I am able to decline ads and actually write my own ad through Sponsored Tweets. With the ability to write my own tweet ad for the product I am able to make sure it is something I would actually say, it is the truth, and is not jeopardizing my testimony in any way. This is a BIG plus for me in using Sponsored Tweets.

Overall, I like Sponsored Tweets. It automatically adds a disclosure hashtag to all tweets so that you

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are FTC compliant and transparent. The only aspect I do not like is that you have to have $50 in your account before you can cash out. From the average rates of ads I have gotten that would take me about 25 ads to accomplish. It's not get rich quick scheme that's for sure.

Have you used Sponsored Tweets? If so, what did you think?

Think Before We Tweet

When I participated in the A Woman Inspired - Online Ministry Conference I learned much about social networking. I spend more time checking Facebook and Twitter now, perhaps too much time, but that's an issue for a different post.

What's been on my heart today is how quickly we expose ourselves with little "tweets" and "status updates". When we hit the keyboard we somehow seem to think we're just sitting talking with a few friends. I sensed the Lord saying "Don't you realize the world is watching? When your fingers type, your tongue speaks"

I felt led to dig into what the Word has to say about the "tongue":

"The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, but the mouth of the fool gushes folly." Proverbs 15:2 NIV

"The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit." Proverbs 18:21 NIV

"If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless." James 1:26 NIV

When we call ourselves Christians we are representing our Lord in all that we do and all that we say. Jesus has called us to be "in the world" but not like the world. We are different, marked by His seal and changed by His love. If in anger we type off a nasty remark, do we sound like Jesus? When we type words of fear, seeing the worst possible outcomes in our situations, do we sound like a people who have faith in a God who holds our future? Shouldn't we instead be typing light into the darkness?

I pray to be like the psalmist David, the one God called a man after His own heart, who wrote: "My tongue will speak of your righteousness and of your praises all day long." Psalm 35:28 NIV

May all of our words, (whether they be thought, spoken or typed) bring glory to the only One Who is worthy of glory and honour and praise. May our words offer salt to lives that have lost their flavour. May our words offer the hope of living water to a thirsty world. As people peek into the little snips we leave online, may they a see a clear reflection of the One Who calls us His own.

**************************

Today's post was by guest contributor, Karin.

Karin (HisFireFly) is a sold out disciple of Jesus Christ learning more each day what it means to abide in Him.   She desires to walk in radical obedience to His voice and prays that her life brings glory to The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit.

Karin and her beloved husband live in rural Manitoba with their dog Faith and various barn cats on 20 beautiful acres the Lord has provided for them.

Stop by for a visit at Flickers of a Faithful FireFly where Karin blogs about Jesus, love, prayer, and life in rural Canada.

Photo credit:

Shane Fullwood / CC BY 2.0

Freebie: Christian Twitter Backgrounds

Today Faithful Bloggers officially opens the doors to our new Free Resources Center!  The first resource we created for our readers are free Christian Twitter Backgrounds.  There are 8 backgrounds to choose from and each background is based on a Bible verse.

Here is a sample of one of the backgrounds:

All of the Twitter backgrounds can be found here.  I have included installation instructions with each background but if you need any help, please let us know via the contact form.  Also if you would like to have the Twitter background customized with your name, blog name, or blog url we can do that for you for a small fee of $5, please see this page for more details.

I hope you enjoy these backgrounds!  There are more great free resources coming soon in the future.