As in most other parts of life, Christians are embracing Twitter. There are thousands of notable Christians using Twitter to wield their influence in the digital environment.

Just as there are a plentitude of ways of expressing your faith in the offline world, Christian themed Twitter backgrounds is one of the ways some people are doing it online.

Here’s our weekly dose of a free Christian Twitter Background from our free download series. Remember every week, we’re giving away a free Xtian Twitback design till the end of the year (if not beyond).

Like this week’s Twitter graphic over the others we’ve released? Let us know in the comment section below. If you install this background, give us a link (use the http://www.twitter.com/kkcoolj full url so it will be a live link) to your Twitter profile so others can visit…and follow you.

FREE CHRISTIAN TWITTER BACKGROUND
DOWNLOAD LINK

How to upload a custom background to your Twitter account:

1. Log in
2. In top navigation bar, click Settings (or go to http://twitter.com/account/settings)
3. Click the last settings tab, Design change-twitter-background
4. Select a template, change your text and background colors, or upload your background image
5. Save your changes

Help is “fill the Twitterverse with the Bible and teaching of Christ!”

If have the design bug and want to contribute a Christian-themed background for Twitter brothers and sisters to use, please use the contact form and we’ll arrange to display + share your work with our brothers and sisters on the digital highway!

There are some people that are just gifted as prayer warriors.

Don’t underestimate the power of prayer.

It works — even in situations where you don’t usually associate prayer with. This video showcases just how powerful prayer can be. The gift this woman had was to have a faith life which allowed her to default to prayer.

How many of us can say the same thing about our confidence in the same situation?

Her faith and dependence on prayer assumedly reflects the strength of her spiritual faith. But that doesn’t get the rest of us off the hook!

Just imagine what else prayer can do if you believe and approach it with the holiness it deserves. Are you replying enough on prayer within your own ministry? With which parts of your ministry can you start to involve prayer which you normally don’t associate it?

Please encourage others by leaving a comment below with your thoughts.

Critics of church online all point to the sterility and breakdown of human connections across the digital highway.

Stefana Broadbent, an anthropologist who has studied human relationships across technology (cell phones, IM, Skype / video chatting, Facebook, etc) for over 20 years, has come to a different conclusion.

While you watch this video of her presentation on how the Internet and technology actually increases intimacy in human relationships, you’ll find the eerie Dunbar number coming up (120-150!). Technology hasn’t drastically increased the number of real connections we manage online – humans are in the end humans.

But of course there’s a little twist. . .

Did you notice the typical number of people each person connects with in close relationship (80%…___ intense relationships) when using technology mediums? Surprising? No?

Broadbent’s findings can have real implications for how church online approach and use technology to communicate and connect its people.

But this learning isn’t just applicable to digital worship communities trying to build out complete online church experiences. Technology won’t just by default destroy or degrade intimacy in relationships — it can actually leap across distance and social/cultural structures (like workplace rules) to enhance and build relationships where offline just can’t compete.

The presentation in this video is an interesting data point when thinking about how to approach the use of social media by pastors and churches.

What do you think?

Is it Tuesday again already?

Looks like it is time to offer another free Twitteratti Tuesady download in our Christian Twitter Backdrop Design Series.

I’m aiming to release a brand new Christian themed background to use on your own Twitter profile each week till the end of the year.

And if you are a designer (or even a wannabe!), I invite your participation in helping to “fill the Twitterverse with the Bible and teaching of Christ!” Why not contribute a Christian-themed background for other Twitter users? Just use the contact form and we’ll arrange to display + share your work with our brothers and sisters of the Twitterverse!

Here is this week’s free Twitter customized design for download:

FREE CHRISTIAN TWITTER BACKGROUND
DOWNLOAD LINK

How to upload a custom background to your Twitter account:

1. Log in
2. In top navigation bar, click Settings (or go to http://twitter.com/account/settings)
3. Click the last settings tab, Design
4. Select a template, change your text and background colors, or upload your background image
5. Save your changes

A new nationwide study shows that there’s a shift happening with how people view and engage with the Bible.

Young adults have an overarching skepticism regarding the Bible not present in older audiences surveyed.

So what does this mean for your church and ministry?

One way to look at it is that what you’re doing right now isn’t working.

It’s time to not just try different things. It’s time to BE different.

Are the sermons being crafted for the pulpit taking into consideration some of the issues important to the younger generation? Is your church’s discipleship curriculum trying to engage the younger Mosaics or are you just trying to force it upon them? Is your entire ministry embracing some the easiest ways to gain and keep the attention of our church’s future?

If you pay attention, you’ll see some of the things this report has found to be useful in evolving your ministry work:

• Young people want to participate in the process of learning
• They are turned off by too much formality in sermons and lectures on the Bible
• Instead of classrooms, they are craving experiences that appear unscripted and interactive
• One way dialogue is the old way. This group want a medium that allows open and honest questioning
• They want technologically stimulating, creative and visual content
• They want to grow in communion with their peers through authentic relationships

Does anything strike you as completely opposite of what you’re seeing now in the church?

Today’s guest post is from Kathy Leonard of Church Initiative. The ministry’s original purpose was to equip churches with resources to help people recover from the pain of separation and divorce, also to help couples remain together or reconcile whenever possible. Kathy shares a unique tactic one church has used to help get people in the door to its ministry programs.

A blip in the church bulletin. . .
An abbreviated pulpit announcement. . .
A spot on the church calendar. . .

How well is your church getting the word out about its programs?

And are people in your community even aware of the help available for them?

Lazybrook Baptist Church in Houston has gotten the attention of nearly every person driving by their church: “Do you relate to Jon and Kate?” reads their marquee. I can imagine the drivers doing a double take, then thinking “Yeah, I can relate to that.”

Although reality TV isn’t reality, it deals with real issues that people are facing. It’s one reason people tune in. That’s why it can be a great starting point for promotional efforts.

For example, Jon and Kate’s reality TV breakup hits close to home for people facing their own broken marriages. And Lazybrook’s new DivorceCare support group program aims to reach the separated and divorced in their community.

Using hot topics from reality TV as a church promo tool can relay a variety of messages:

• “God has something to say about the things you’re thinking about.”
• “What you hear on TV isn’t the final word about [relationships, parenting, sex, etc.].”
• “Church is a place where people can find answers to their questions and solutions to their problems.”

Pop culture is a vehicle your church can use to go straight to the heart of people’s problems. And you can be creative in expanding your ideas beyond marquees and reality shows!

Let’s draw people into our churches by:

* Connecting the spiritual with what they are already thinking about
* Making them aware that God has a something to say about “Hot Topics”
* Using messages that grab the attention of large numbers of people

What do you think about hooking into reality TV and other tabloid headlines in order to get people’s attention for the church?

As we announced recently, from now till the end of the year, we’ll release a new Christian Twitter background every Twitteratti Tuesday for free.

Stop on by each week and download a new Twitter-customized design to your computer, upload it to your Twitter account and you’re good to go!

Twitteratti Tuesday at Godvertiser.com will last at least till the end of this year, and we’ll have a new one waiting for you on Tuesdays.

Here’s this week’s Free Christian Twitter Design:

FREE CHRISTIAN TWITTER BACKGROUND

DOWNLOAD LINK

How to upload a custom background to your Twitter account:

1. Log in
2. In top navigation bar, click Settings (or go to http://twitter.com/account/settings)
3. Click the last settings tab, Design
4. Select a template, change your text and background colors, or upload your background image
5. Save your changes

We welcome your participation in helping to “fill the Twitterverse with the Bible and teaching of Christ!” If you are a designer and want to contribute a Christian-themed background for Twitter users, use the contact form and we’ll arrange to display + share your work with our brothers and sisters on the digital highway!

Right now, there’s approximately 40 online churches across the world wide web.

None of them have gotten it fully right yet.  Most online pastors will tell you they agree with that assessment too.

But all of them are also forging ahead without looking back.  It’s all about wrestling with technology, content and how to make the connections made in church online constitute authentic Christian community.

Check out this vid from Pastor Dave Adamson from LiquidChurch.com about the immediate future.

This is a glimpse of what’s ahead immediately in front of us.

It’s inevitable that church online will embraced by thousands of more people going forward.

Only time will tell about the real distant future — about what church online will look like then.  A bunch of stuff needs to happen with the church online model as it becomes fully acknowledged as another way of “doing church.”

What are your thoughts?

Church growth is such an important topic these days.

Some criticism has been that the mainline denominations haven’t been strategic enough about assimilation strategy and evangelistic intentionality.

But the Catholic Church apparently isn’t going to sit back and let church attendance decline on its own.

Instead, it seems that the Vatican has announced a decision to forgo organic growth in preference for a mergers and acquisition strategy — or rather a hostile takeover bid aimed squarely at the Anglican Church.

The Roman Catholic Church is taking advantage of recent political heat the Church of England is taking over female and gay clergy issues.  And the Pope felt it was the right time to reach out in hopes converting masses of disgruntled Anglicans to the Catholic faith.

At a press conference, the Vatican even announced a new canonical structure to accommodate existing Anglican traditions inside of the Catholic faith. In a way, it’s like acquiring a company and letting the current management to stay in tact. For example, married Anglican preists to stay married, alongside existing Catholic priests restricted from marriage (Hmm…will that sit well permanently without causing any friction????)

It’s a bold move.  Apparently it took a lot of people by surprise.  It also looks like the Anglican Church leadership didn’t have much choice either.

What do you think about this?  What is the Catholic Church really trying to do via this move?

John Piper recently explained why he engages in social media such as Twitter: He said that while there are  arguments against social media + church {i.e. narcissism}, he leans towards the argument that Christians should fill these media platforms with the Bible and the teaching of Christ.

Here’s one more way to help the cause.  Use a Christian-themed Twitter background for your account.

From now till the end of the year, we’ll release a new Christian Twitter background every Twitteratti Tuesday for free!

Just download to your computer and upload to your Twitter account and you’re set to go!

If you get tired of the background, no worries!  Just come back each Twitteratti Tuesday at Godvertiser.com and we’ll have a new one waiting for you.

Here’s this week’s Free Christian Twitter Design:

FREE CHRISTIAN TWITTER BACKGROUND

DOWNLOAD LINK

How to upload a custom background to your Twitter account:

1. Log in
2. In top navigation bar, click Settings (or go to http://twitter.com/account/settings)
3. Click the last settings tab, Design
4. Select a template, change your text and background colors, or upload your background image
5. Save your changes

We welcome your participation in helping to “fill the Twitterverse with the Bible and teaching of Christ!” If you are a designer and want to contribute a Christian-themed background for Twitter users, use the contact form and we’ll arrange to display + share your work with our brothers and sisters on the digital highway!