Having said that, I also believe that social networks are completely unreliable. You may be using them today to advertise your events or to minister to people, but tomorrow they could be completely gone. That is why it is important for ministries to have their own websites.

A couple of years ago, MySpace was the big thing. I would frequently see music artists using MySpace as their presence on the web. This is a huge mistake. Everyday, MySpace is moving closer and closer to being irrelevant. If MySpace ever shuts down, it is likely that those people will lose all of the information that was stored there.

Whether you are a church or a Gospel artist, it is important to know that in many ways you are a brand. Your brand needs its own website. You need one central location where people can find information about you and connect with you. Social networks like Twitter and Facebook should be used to augment your presence online.

The advantage of using social networks is that they are easy to setup. You don’t need a lot of technical knowledge. While setting up a website may be slightly more difficult, it is definitely an investment that you need to make.

You may not have the money to hire someone to build a website for you. If money is an issue, then there are plenty of free and simple tools online like WordPress.com and Weebly.com. These sites will allow you to have a simple but effective website up and running in just a few minutes.

If you do decide to have someone build your site, make sure it is updated frequently. In a perfect world, it would be great if you could hire someone to do this for you. I understand that this probably isn’t an option for most people. An alternative would be to have some build your site using a content management system (CMS).

The use of a CMS allows someone else to initially create your site. Then, you will easily be able to add and edit content without the need of a lot of technical knowledge.

The world does business and ministry on the web. The web is our present and the web is our future. If you are serious about your ministry (preaching, teaching, music), then having a website is crucial. If you depend solely on Facebook and Twitter, you could live to seriously regret it.

I’m trying to understand how someone can boldly profess the name of the Lord on Monday and then they are using profanity on their facebook status on Tuesday. These are the same people that freely use four letter words on Wednesday, but want to tell everyone what “thus sayeth the Lord” on Thursday. When I see this kind of behavior, I can’t help but to shake my head. How am I or anyone else really supposed to take these people seriously?

I completely understand that nobody is perfect. I definitely do not claim to have lived a perfect life. I like many other people,  have had some less than desirable moments that I wish I could take back. This is all part of being human. Often times, people use profanity out of anger or even accidentally. I’m not referring to mistakes. There is a difference between something being part of your normal behavior and something being a mistake.

There are times in our lives when our behaviors and habits need some serious adjustments. The things we say and do out of habit, just do not please God.  I don’t think that those are the times when we should be on our Christian soap boxes quoting scripture and trying to “encourage” others. When we boldly confess our Christianity to the world, we represent God. How can we effectively represent Him when our words and actions don’t line up with His?

When I see this type of behavior I try to say something to the person. You just never know what someone can be going through. There could be a greater problem behind the scenes and we only see a small piece of it on facebook, Twitter or MySpace. I don’t get too spiritual or preachy. I just check to make sure that they are OK and encourage them to try to find other ways to express themselves.

EVERYBODY has the right to praise God and tell the world of his goodness. However, if we have a true heart to represent God, then we need to make conscious decisions regarding our behavior. We really do not do God any favors when we swear one day and quote scripture the next day.

Our goal as believers should be to live a life that pleases the Lord. Sometimes we need to ask God to show us the things in our lives that do not please him. Once he shows us something, we must move quickly to correct it.

Have you experienced anything like this? Let me know your thoughts.

Like many other people, the first time I created a Twitter account and logged in, I didn’t get it. Twitter gives me the ability to tell people what I am doing. So what? I could do that by updating my status on facebook and all of my friends were on facebook and they weren’t on Twitter.

Looking back, I realize how completely ignorant I was back then. Twitter has a value that is completely different from facebook, MySpace or any other social network.

If you use social networks for the sole purpose of connecting with friends both past and present, then Twitter is probably not for you. I would dare even say that you shouldn’t even bother with Twitter at all.

The way I see it, Twitter is absolutely great for two main reasons:

1. You have a message or multiple messages that you want to get out to a large number of people quickly and/or on a consistent basis.

If you have anything to promote (events, church, ministry, website, etc) and you are not on Twitter, then you are greatly missing out. There are some people on Twitter who have thousands of followers. Imagine getting your message out instantly to thousands of people for free! Very powerful!

2. You are interested in a certain industry and you want to connect with other people who are already in that industry.

Since this is a blog about Christianity, I’ll use the Christian industry as an example. No matter what you are interested in (preaching, singing, music producing, prophecy, community service, media) there are established and well know people in those areas on Twitter. For the most part, they operate their own Twitter counts, which is the total opposite from what you see on MySpace and facebook.

Often times, we place ministers and music artists on pedestals and treat them as if they are superhuman or above the average person. (I’ll refer to them as Christian celebrities for the sake of argument) (I know, I know, in Christianity the only celebrity should be Jesus Christ)Twitter will give you a dose of reality. You’ll quickly find out that many these “Christian celebrities” are like everyone else. They misspell words and use slang. They have joys, frustrations and those “clueless” moments just like everybody else. Some of them may even annoy you every now and then by posting 20 updates in 30 seconds.

The flip side is that a number of “Christian celebrities” post some good stuff on their Twitter accounts. Some pastors will post inspirational and encouraging content. Musicians will let you know when an where they will be ministering. Bloggers and other media personalities hold contests exclusively for their Twitter followers. I used “Christian celebrities” as an example, but the same principles can be applied to any industry.

One of the unique things about Twitter is that the relationships are not automatically reciprocal. If you “friend” someone on facebook or MySpace they get to see all of your information and you get to see their information too. With Twittter, people can follow you, but you don’t have to follow them. Translation, people can see your updates, but you do not need to see theirs. You can also lock you updates and only allow the people you select to see them.

Twitter is also low maintenance. No pictures of people’s kids. No applications. No quizzes about what bible verse somebody is. Twitter is about what you are doing now, plain and simple.

Have I sold you on Twitter yet? Do yourself a favor, if you have a message or are interested in a particular industry or industries, join Twitter. To get you started, you can find a list of gospel artists to follow on GospelPundit.com. While you are on Twitter, please don’t forget to follow me!

One of the recent buzz words I hear often in Christianity is “transparent”. Allow me to be “transparent” for a moment. I am not a member of any Christian social network. So, I decided to join one. After a little research, I found out that there are over 40 to choose from. Where to start?

Here is the list of Christian social networks that I was able to come up with (in alphabetical order):

101ChristianSpaces.com
BattleCry.com
Christian.com
Christianster.com
ChristUnion.com
Christian-Network.com
ChurchCircle.org
CMatch.com
CrossConnector.com
DittyTalk.com
FaithFreaks.com
FaithLight.com
FaithSocial.com
GenerationJC.com
GodsSocialNetwork.com
GQBook.com
HolyPal.com
InChristNetwork.com
JCFaith.com
JesusCrowd.com
KindleJoy.com
LifeSpace.cc
LiveKite.com
LivingGodsDream.com
MeetFish.com
Missionaries.in
MyFaithHaven.com
MyFlock.com
MyGodlyPlace.com
Myichthus.com
MyPraize.com
OurChristianPlace.com
People2Pray.com
Praize.com
ShoutLife.com
Swordwalk.com
TeenGrace.net
TheCommon.com
Xianz.com
YourChristianSpace.com
YouthRoots.com

Please let me know if there are others that I am missing. Every week I’ll try to profile a couple of these sites. Please bear with me. This is a looooong list.