Twittering while the Preacher Preaches!

Yesterday I posted about music, singing, organs. That conversation had a bit of the old with the new. So, today I want to consider the new. Although the issue has been out for about 2 weeks, I've been meaning to blog about an article entitled: "Twittering in Church, With the Pastor's OK."

Now, I'm pretty up on church technology -- I blog and facebook and more, but I've not chosen to do the Twittering thing. Not sure why I need to do it, to be honest. I waste enough time blogging! At least Cheryl thinks so. But I was a bit "shocked" to read this article which speaks of a new trend in church -- twittering while the preacher preaches. Now the picture in the printed version has the preacher, John Voelz, preaching with tweets on the screen behind him. The church is in Jackson, Michigan. Jackson is about 100 miles or so southwest of here -- named for Andy Jackson, it was the birthplace of the Republican Party (back when it was an anti-slavery party).

The author of the article writes:

If worship is about creating community, Twitter is an undeniably useful tool. The trick is to not let the chatter overshadow the need for quiet reflection that spirituality requires. At Westwinds, people can ask questions about the sermon that the pastors will answer later, or they can tweet in real time and hope another congregant offers insight. Some use Twitter as a note-taking tool. Often, it's pastor-directed, with McDonald preaching while Voelz taps out, "In what way do you feel the spirit of God moving within you?" Discuss.

I realize there's something generational here, and younger people seem to be able to multi-task better than older ones (including ones my age), I'm not sure whether this is a good thing. Our attention span is already getting shorter, so what does this suggest for the future? And, by putting up the tweets on the screens behind the preacher, does this not serve to give a further distraction?

Though not meant as a criticism, I wonder if this isn't related to the fact that in many of these churches sermons go on for 45 minutes to an hour? I try to keep mine at around 20-22 minutes or less -- figuring that you should be able to get the message out in a relatively short amount of time.

I'm especially interested in hearing from younger readers your thoughts about this trend. Is it good, bad, indifferent? Is it distracting or not? Is it another movement away from church as sanctuary, place of the sacred?

Picture is from Time's online page.