What Would Jesus Tweet?

Of course, as with anything, we must be careful about being preoccupied with anything. We should never worship at the altar of any tool or technology. Twitter, Facebook, computers, televisions, cars—all and any of it can become too important to us. But if we remember to keep such things as servants and not let them become masters, our lives and ministries can be enriched.

Recently, our youngest daughter and her husband gave us our sixth grandchild, a beautiful boy named Tiernan. I was at the hospital but keeping a wise distance from the festivities. When the baby arrived, I sent out a tweet: "eight-pound boy—red hair."

Anyone up at 4:13 a.m. that Saturday got the word. Soon came a picture.

Congratulations poured in.

Then at 7:26 the very next morning I sent a different kind of message: "Pray for Tiernan Michael Zizolfo, my grandson born yesterday, he has made his way to the NICU. Nothing alarming, but possibly an infection." All turned out well, but it was comforting to be able to get word to people of prayer that quickly.

Don't be afraid of social media tools in ministry. What Marconi unleashed on the world is still on the march. Sure the lingo can be confusing—who would have guessed 10 years go that we'd have a word like tweet in our regular vocabulary? Then again, I'll just bet Mr. Morse's code was a little hard to figure out at first, too. And remember, when the first telegraph message was sent a little over 165 years ago, between Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, the words were taken from the Bible as a reminder of the potential power of any tool and of the hand of God in and over all: "What God hath wrought."

If you sent that today as a tweet, you'd have enough characters left to include John 3:16, with five to spare.

David R. Stokes is the senior pastor of Fair Oaks Church in Fairfax, Va., and host of the radio program "Loud on Purpose," heard daily at 2:00 p.m. on WAVA 105.1 FM. On Twitter he is @davidrstokes.