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Home/Church Talk/Pastor’s 24 hours Twitter project #pastors24

Pastor’s 24 hours Twitter project #pastors24

UPDATE: This project took place on October 27th, 2010.

Read the Report here!

Original Article:

A police station in the UK recently tweeted every single call and dispatch in a 24 hour period. The Greater Manchester Police Force between 5am on Thursday October 14 and 5am Friday October 15  dealt with 3,205 incidents and posted details of every single one on Twitter (Here’s the tweets archive). Their purpose was educational:

“The reality of police work is that although crime is a big part of what we do, we do much else besides,” Chief Constable Peter Fahy of Manchester said in a message posted to YouTube. “We’re very much the agency of last resort, and a big part of our workload is related to wider social problems of alcohol, drugs, mental health and people having problems with their relationships.”

In other words, the public perception of everything a police force does is very much out of line with what they actually do, which is much broader in scope.

It started me thinking about the common conceptions about being a pastor.

You know the jokes: pastors only work on Sundays and only care for spiritual concerns.

But I wonder what great diversity there might be in a pastor’s daily life? Could outlining what a typical pastor’s day looks like be interesting to people?

Of course, John Wesley and his Holy Club did just this every day of outlining how they spent their time while at Oxford and continued the practice to a less-ridiculous degree with Wesley’s journals. So perhaps along with public education there is a spiritual component of examining how you do your time.

So here’s the challenge: are there people interested in participating in a Pastor’s 24 hour twitter project?

Here’s what it would look like:

  • Pastors or people in ministry work would have twitter accounts that they would update with every single ministry-related thing they do in a 24 hour period, from the big to the mundane.
  • Obviously, details would be kept to a minimum. If a meeting is over a sensitive topic, the tweet might just be “met with parishioner” or “finance meeting”
  • Try to post as close as possible to the time it completed, either by the twitter web interface or a cell phone (you can setup tweeting by text message here).
  • Do this for 24 hours so the world has a better idea of the (1) complexity of pastoral issues and (2) the diversity of our ministry contexts!
  • Use the hashtag (say what?) of #pastors24 at the end of the update so we can follow everyone’s work.

What do you think? Willing to participate?

If there’s interest, here’s the proposed action list:

  1. Plan for next Wednesday, October 27th will be the pastors24 day.  Wednesdays are usually full ministry days for me, at least.  Post every entry under the twitter hashtag #pastors24
  2. Sign up below and write your twitter name or link, then I’ll include you in updates later this week as a participant and link to your twitter/blog (free publicity if you participate!)

Thoughts?

Written by:
Rev. Jeremy Smith
Published on:
October 19, 2010
Thoughts:
36 Comments

Categories: Church TalkTags: pastors24, twitter

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Melissa Meyers

    October 19, 2010 at 1:27 pm

    I’m in! This is a fantastic idea. I have friends who are not part of any church or tradition that often ask me, what do you do all day?

    @Pastormelissa

    Reply
  2. Kristen Parks

    October 19, 2010 at 1:39 pm

    I’m in, just wish it were this week instead of next, this has been a really really jam packed ministry week!!

    @preachinzoogal

    Reply
  3. Emily

    October 19, 2010 at 4:18 pm

    I’m in. I can’t imagine a quiet Wednesday, even if there’s nothing on my calendar right now….

    Reply
  4. Jenny Smith

    October 19, 2010 at 4:19 pm

    I’ll try it too! I’ll be at the NCLI conference in Seattle that day so it won’t be a typical day but still might be interesting.

    @jkbsmith

    Reply
  5. Rob Passow

    October 19, 2010 at 4:50 pm

    I am a church musician and we get the same questions, assumptions,etc. Can I play too?

    @Rob_Mus

    Reply
  6. umconnection

    October 19, 2010 at 4:54 pm

    I’m in. Sounds Fun.

    Reply
  7. Don Frazure

    October 20, 2010 at 12:33 am

    @donfrazure

    I am in! This sounds like a great idea. I’m the worship pastor at my church and I know many people in the church don’t have a clue about what I do during the week.

    Reply
  8. Keith McIlwain

    October 20, 2010 at 7:50 am

    I’ll give it a shot!

    Reply
  9. Marla Marcum

    October 20, 2010 at 1:47 pm

    MarlaMarcum… sounds like fun!

    Reply
    • Marla Marcum

      October 20, 2010 at 1:48 pm

      that should have been @MarlaMarcum

      Reply
  10. Katie

    October 20, 2010 at 5:01 pm

    This is a great idea! I’m in!

    @KatieStickney

    Reply
  11. Amanda

    October 21, 2010 at 4:06 pm

    @argarvin

    I’m in!

    Reply
  12. tara paul

    October 25, 2010 at 2:36 pm

    @revtara

    sure, i will give it a try 🙂

    Reply
  13. Andy Stoddard

    October 25, 2010 at 3:12 pm

    @revandys

    Reply
  14. Shannon Karafanda

    October 25, 2010 at 3:45 pm

    I’m game. What a great idea! My twitter name is skarafanda and my blog is drk-shannon.blogspot.com. See ya virtually on Wed.

    Reply
  15. Becca

    October 25, 2010 at 8:16 pm

    Hi Jeremy, count me in (@pastorbecca)!

    Becca

    Reply
  16. Jim

    October 26, 2010 at 6:23 am

    I’m in…@revjimparsons

    Reply
  17. Jim

    October 26, 2010 at 12:43 pm

    @theprodigal up in Alaska. I’ll give this a whirl. I’ll have a meeting, a Bible Study, and two different community play practices. Wonder what else I’ll be up to?

    Reply
  18. Tiffany

    October 26, 2010 at 3:44 pm

    I’m in!

    Reply
  19. Ashley Green-Young

    October 26, 2010 at 4:53 pm

    I’m in!

    Reply
  20. Lesley Langford

    October 26, 2010 at 7:16 pm

    I’m in!

    Reply
  21. revsonja

    October 26, 2010 at 9:54 pm

    I’m so in. Love the idea!

    @revsonja

    Reply
  22. Marthame Sanders

    October 26, 2010 at 10:00 pm

    I’m in. @marthame

    Reply
  23. Bridget Cabrera

    October 26, 2010 at 11:08 pm

    count me in @bridgetcabrera

    Reply
  24. Ed Johnson, Jr

    October 27, 2010 at 4:45 am

    I’m in … as long as I can remember to update!

    Reply
  25. Steven McCoy

    October 27, 2010 at 8:28 am

    I’m In @stemc4.

    Reply
  26. Jennifer M-K

    October 27, 2010 at 10:39 am

    I’m in, belatedly, @revjmk

    Reply
  27. Matt Kelley

    October 27, 2010 at 11:14 am

    I’m in!

    @matthewlkelley

    Reply
  28. Anna G

    October 27, 2010 at 2:59 pm

    TheAnnaG on twitter… just saw it halfway through the day but am excited to participate

    Reply

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