UPDATE: 2008.05.17 - 1:30 PM - WeTheChurch.org is not back in operation, yet, but they have a message, with which I whole-heartedly endorse and agree, for the vandals and for the rest of us, the church. Feel free to check it out.
UPDATE: 2008.05.17 - 10:00 AM - Please note that the website we referenced here was hacked and apparently vandalized overnight on May 16, 2008. This is very disappointing. In an effort to prevent any negative feelings or connotations to this site we have removed the link to it in this blog post. Once the site is restored and its security beefed up we will restore the link.
Microblogging seems to be all the rage. For those who may not yet know, microblogging is the near real-time, short message bursts that alert you to exactly what those you've decided to follow are doing at any given moment. The service maintains a timeline so that you can look back over a period of time to get a feel for someone's day, or night, as the case may be for some, in the event that you missed some of the dozens to hundreds of entries that might accumulate for an individual in a given day. There are quite a few services dedicated to this new-found real-time digital voyeurism. Several are Twitter, Jaiku (recently purchased by Google), and Pownce, to name a few. While they all provide essentially the same service, allowing you to "follow", and be "followed" by, anyone, Twitter seems to be gaining momentum as the preferred microblogging service of those in the know.
I know, you may be wondering already about the title of this entry and where it comes into play. What's the connection between microblogging and WeTheChurch.org?
First, I'd like to credit Bobby Gruenwald of LifeChurch.tv for the heads-up on this one. In a post on the Swerve Blog today, Bobby told about this new site, WeTheChurch.org. The premise is that much like a microblog, except without having to establish an account, people can submit prayer requests and praises through the website and they get placed on the timeline, for anyone to see, but mostly for others to pray for. So far, not much more than a prayer and praise bulletin board. Very Web 1.0-ish. The power, and I mean power comes in the attachment of the site to the WeTheChurch.org Twitter feed. For those that choose to follow the feed, they will receive real-time notifications of real prayer requests and real praises. Very Web 2.0-ish!
Think for a moment about Matthew 18:19. It says:
When two of you get together on anything at all on earth and make a prayer of it, my Father in heaven goes into action. - The Message
Wow! I get goosebumps thinking of countless stories of people being awakened in the middle of the night, for no other reason than they felt that God was calling them to pray for someone right then at that moment. God certainly can, and will continue to, stir our hearts to pray at specific times, for specific people, in specific situations. That is still very much part of the wonder and mystery of God and how He works. How cool to now also have an endless source of praises and petitions to join together with others in bringing before him. In Matthew 26:41 Jesus commanded His disciples to:
Stay alert; be in prayer so you don’t wander into temptation without even knowing you’re in danger. There is a part of you that is eager, ready for anything in God. But there’s another part that’s as lazy as an old dog sleeping by the fire. - The Message
I think this may be, for many, a great way to be reminded to "Stay alert; be in prayer..."
What do you think?
