Five years of Twitter

On March 21, 2006, Twitter was born when Jack Dorsey sent the first tweet.  Now, literally billions of tweets are emitted from mobile phones, computers, and other technology as people share news, updates from life, links, and sundry other 140 character pieces of information.

I joined the world of twitter on May 26th, 2008 while attending a leadership conferences for churches called Drive. I wasn't quite sure what to do with the technology at that point in time, but I thought it might be worth checking out. Over the last three years of my own use, I've been able to see it used a number of ways, including staying connected with friends I've met during my life's journey. I've watched people use it to share information with others on an amazing scale, and I've seen Nuru International use it to share the release of media, updates from the field, and more.

Twitter is defined as a micro-blogging technology. Since you are reading this post, you probably know what a blog is. A Tweet is 140 characters long and can share anything from links to life reflections. There has even emerged a form of philanthropy called Twestival which in years past has been used to raise $250,000 for great organizations like charity: water.

With the emergence of smart phones and dozens of apps and platforms for managing twitter accounts, I'm curious to see where this technology is going.  Do you have a twitter account? If so, what do you use it for? If not, what do you think about all of this tweeting going on?

Regardless, I think the emergence of twitter speaks to a great desire we have as human beings to share both information and experiences with others. Whether you tweet or not, may you find a community of people with whom you can share your experiences and may you together help make the world a better place.

Another Celebrity Encounter?

Well, seeing President Clinton was an auspicious end to the week last week, but then I had another wonderful experience this week. Monday I drove down with a group of friends and fellow staff members at Chestnut Ridge Church to a conference on church leadership being held in Atlanta, GA at Northpoint Community Church which is led by Andy Stanley.

The conference was amazing, and I may write at a later time about some of the conference highlights and takeaways, but as I reflected on my time seeing the former President last week, I thought--wow I just saw another celebrity.

Tuesday night, we had a special celebrity visitor to our conference--Jeff Foxworthy!!! I don't know if you are familiar with Jeff, but he's well known for "You might be a redneck . . . " and the Blue Collar Comedy Tour. Jeff is a Christian, and took time during his schtick to thank the many men and women who serve as leaders in their churches for the important work that they do. He also shared some funny stories from his life, and even from the Bible.

He pointed out that David killed a man with a slingshot, and said if you do that, "yewwwwww might be a redneck!" ;)

He then talked about how samson got fired up at his neighbors and tied about three hundred foxes together by their tails and then he lit them on fire and they just started spinning around and burning up all the houses in the village. He then said that sounded like something one of his relatives would do. ;)

Then he talked about the woman at the well. Married five times. Currently living with a sixth guy who isn't her husband. Then he said, "If there were trailer parks around Jerusalem, this lady lived in one!"

I'm sure it was funnier being delivered by him then it is coming across being written out, but it was definitely a night filled with laughter. Andy Stanley and the folks who put on the conference have "Fun" as a value, and they wanted to make sure that at least for a moment all of the 2200 people who came to the conference from all over the world would take time to laugh, to celebrate, and to relax.

I laughed so hard that I was exhausted at the end of the night. In the middle of a world where people are really good at being serious, may you find a moment or two to laugh and to smile today!