What Would Jesus Tweet?

"It created such an anticipation for Easter Sunday in our church," said Pastor Blue, "but I also noticed people outside our city forwarding to others in their friend circle."

Cornerstone Church, a young and growing ministry in East Windsor, Conn., uses Facebook regularly to promote its activities. And because they rent facilities for their services, the social networking tool becomes a cyber-fellowship hall of sorts for the membership.

And these tools benefit ministry expressions outside the church, becoming a way to connect with people or reconnect with people not seen in years. Ric Ackerman works in the video, graphics and music field, providing logistical support for organizations and events as diverse as mega-church programs and concerts at major stadiums. He says, "Facebook has bridged two worlds for me in many ways. While I have renewed hundreds of old high school, college and ministry friends from the past 30 years, it has also helped my non-believer friends, who number in the thousands, to get a real-life view into my world as a believer."

Some use social networking tools to enhance their prayer lives. John Strain, who has been the senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Toms River, N.J., since 1992, takes special time each weekend to go through his Facebook friends list and pray for the pastors represented there. "Several of my church families—adults and youth—are on Facebook," he says, "and I use it frequently to encourage them as I respond to their posts." Pastor Strain believes that the potential-for-prayer aspect is the best thing about using such a social media tool.

Many churches have pages on Facebook, and it is a way for people around the world to keep up with what is going on in particular local churches. And for those pastors who write a regular blog, Facebook and Twitter are great ways to point others to what has been written.

My personal experience with social media tools started slowly, largely because of generational reluctance. But once I learned my way around, it opened many doors to help me get to know people in our church better—and for them to get to know me better. I find it especially rewarding to connect with young people this way. On a daily basis, I can keep up with them, a few sentences at a time. And it usually works out that I am able to have a real conversation the next time we meet in person. "Hey, how was the zoo?" or "Are you feeling better?" or "I read that article you linked to from your Facebook page—very interesting."

If you are a pastor or spiritual leader and find it hard to keep up with names and what's happening in the lives of the sheep, these tools could help you immensely. And it doesn't have to take a lot of time.

Joe Sangl is a financial planner and author of the wonderful book I Was Broke—Now I'm Not. He travels across the country conducting seminars in churches, helping believers become better stewards. He is also a big fan of social media tools such as Twitter. In fact, he sent me a tweet directly on point as I was writing this article: "Social media amplified the individual voice and allowed us to follow our heroes of the faith and learn from them at a distance."