Texting is a phenomenon that has swept our world. The concept of an 'instant email' in 160 characters or less delivered right to our cell phones has revolutionized our communication thought process. Nowadays, if you don't text, you're just not cool! And if you don't have 'unlimited' text, you're REALLY not cool! I suspect that in the extreme near future, the career to have would be that of an orthopedic doctor that specializes in thumbs!I'm still relatively new to texting...less than one year to be exact! But I have to admit, it certainly didn't take long to become addicted! If fact, my whole family have become text addicts! Together, the girls and I text somewhere in the neighborhood of 7K texts a month! Told you we were addicts!
Now, having said all of that, and knowing America's addiction with this crazy past-time, why is it you think, that when we enter our churches we are told immediately to put our phones away, or at the very least to put them on silent. Do you like me, have those 'sudden urges' to whip out that phone and make a quick text, then quickly put it away so as not to get caught? Or, have it at-the-ready for that reply?
With churches and ministries all across our country, discouraging the use of texting in our services, we at H2O have taken just the polar opposite approach! Each week as our students gather for worship, we're encouraging them to make sure their phones are charged and ready to go!
But we do it, for a purpose.
And it works...
At H2O, our focus has always been, 'how can we impact our campus the most?' And I've always believed that texting had to be included in the mix. So for Phase 1 of our plan, here is what we've chosen to do:
Each Thursday night as our students gather for our weekly large group worship, videos and such are playing on our big screen, while our students use this time for quick bits of socializing. But as the time draws near to get things officially 'kicked off', everyone heads for their seats and pulls out their phones. Now the fun begins!
At the '3 minute warning' (sometimes we use a 5 minute warning) we use a countdown video that leads us into our service. During that specific 3 minute time span (or 5 minute, whatever the case may be), I instruct the students to text their friends certain types of messages. For example, during the last week of classes, I asked them to text their friends something encouraging...'finish the semester strong'...'I'm prayin' for your finals'...'Good luck'....etc. What ever is said, it HAS to be very 'uplifting & encouraging'. And you cannot text anyone who is also at the worship gathering...it must be to students that are not in attendance. If someone doesn't have texting (and that's rare!), they are encouraged to make phone calls instead.
At first I must admit, this was way out-of-the-box...risky...but at the same time, if it worked, it would be extremely innovative. The first night we did this, my students had an extra gleam in their eye...they loved this concept! The results were unbelievable!
To give you some indication as to the impact this makes, our last night of the semester, we were extremely down in attendance. Last minute projects & papers kept many of our students busy. But for those who were there, we had 21 students that use text. And during the 5 minute countdown, those 21 students texted 327 people and encouraged them in some way about doing great on their final exams! That's amazing! Now what else is cool about this, is the fact that 80 of those 327 people who received those texts, responded back to our H2O students! That's 25%! Those 25% said things like: 'thanks, you don't know how much I needed that!'...'thanks for thinking of me'...'wow, such great timing'...'thanks for the prayers, I need 'em'!
Sure, we help encourage our students with different incentives to do this, but my oh my, the results are crazy! One young lady texted 37 people during that 5 minute block! Another 3 students had over 30 each!
Texting...the time has come for change. How will you use today's technology and blend it in with today's culture? For us, we're gonna continue to impact our campus, one text at a time!
1 comment:
double edged sword. if, as in your case, you actually designate a time/have an intentional purpose for it in the course of your meeting, it's an awesome tool.
to sit in a meeting or service, especially when all devices are requested to be turned off, i think it's a distraction for the folks around you, and possibly for the speaker/preacher, who didn't request that the congregation tweet, text or blog his mssage live.
the change needs to come in leaders' perception of it as a ministry tool, not necessarily with the tool itself.
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