Twitter is just a fad (just like the internet).  What a joke.  Twitter has become a part of life for many people.  It is not a means to deep relationships, but it is a great supplement to existing relationships and great way to grow in your vocation by networking with others.  A questions was brought to my attention yesterday about monitoring the twitter feeds of the staff of a company (specifically the church).  Pete Wilson blogged about that topic here.

As someone who has been asked to delete a few of my own tweets, I think I bring a different perspective than a lot of the commentators on Pete’s blog.  With Twitter literally being at my fingertips with my phone, I sometimes tweet before really thinking through everything.  It’s not that I am being monitored, but with Twitter and Facebook being public forums, my leadership is bound to see what I write.  As I look back on them, I understand why I was asked to delete those couple posts, and I like to think that I won’t post anything else that I will have to delete in the future.  The thing is, I’m not perfect.  When I make mistakes, they are brought to my attention in a graceful manner, and I respect and appreciate that.

One of the comments on Pete’s blog was from Lindsey Nobles:

You represent your company. your tweets represent you. Hence your tweets represent your company. Be yourself, but make sure that your tweets are appropriate and use discretion at times.

I think she nailed it there.  The church as a whole has already left a bad taste in many people’s mouths.  As a member on the staff of a large church, I am pretty well-known as being connected to that church.  I can put the legal mumble-jumble of “these are my views and don’t represent the views of my church,” but that doesn’t change the fact that people will always associate me with my church.  To ruin the image of the local church in the eyes of someone who reads what I write can in turn skew how they see the church as a whole and furthermore alienate them from their search for what is missing in their lives.  If there is even a chance that I might make it more difficult for someone to enter a relationship with Christ, then someone watching what I tweet is the least of my worries.

I don’t want to misrepresent my church.  It’s not important what I was asked to delete, except that I understand why and agree with those that provide leadership to me.  They are not scrutinizing everything I write, they are just asking me to be a little more careful and think through things a little more.  Your public tweets are being monitored (directly or indirectly) whether you want them to be or not.  That’s the nature of them being public.