Andy Rowell

Category: Twitter

  • Aristotle on Facebook and Twitter

    "To be a friend to many people in the complete kind of friendship is not possible . . . it is necessary to get experience and to come into intimate acquaintance with each other, which is of the utmost difficulty.  But it is possible to be pleased by many people for usefulness and pleasure, since there are many people of those sorts, and their services are provided in a short time" (Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Book Eight, 1158a, (trans. Joe Sachs). 

    Aristotle: Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics

    Aristotle is right.  In order to have strong friendships, we need to spend significant time with one another.  We need people who believe in us, tell us the truth, and support us.  I think of small groups, phone calls, long walks, and long drives with friends. 

    But I admit that I have come to also really enjoy Facebook and Twitter.  My Facebook friends are people I know from real life (high school, college, church, seminary, colleagues, etc.)  On Twitter, I follow some Christian leaders, authors and pastors.  My Facebook Status Updates and Posted Items tend to be more amusing and personal–about my kids, witty remarks, etc.  My Twitter tweets are more thoughtful comments usually pertaining to church leadership and theology.

    Interestingly I think I exchange what Aristotle calls "pleasure" through Facebook–joking around–seeing what my friends are up to.  I exchange what Aristotle calls "usefulness" through Twitter. 

    I think the usefulness and pleasure of Facebook and Twitter
    have to do with your particular life situation and personality.  Because I am usually
    either reading or watching my 3 and 1 year old boys and my laptop is nearby, it happens to fit
    my lifestyle.  My wife Amy
    on the other hand neither blogs, nor has Facebook or Twitter.  Instead she chats with people on
    the phone and at her workplace–our church.  Aristotle is on to something–we all need solid friendships of equality but we also all enjoy other relationships that bring us smiles (pleasure) and insight (usefulness).        

    Other info:

    If you are someone who knows me from real life, you can find my Facebook account here.

    If you are interested in church leadership and my blog, please follow me at my Twitter page.  Or you can just go check it out anonymously without joining Twitter. 

    I am reading Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics for Stanley Hauerwas's course Happiness, the Life of Virtue, and Friendship.  I have posted about that here.

    There are lots of interesting comments from Aristotle about relationships in book 8 of the Nicomachean Ethics that I thought were relevant to Facebook and Twitter.  You can access an old translation online for free.  For example, Aristotle addresses the issue of power in relationships.  In Twitter, power is obvious.  If you follow someone but they don't follow you, they are in the power position.  If they decide to follow you, you are equal.  In Facebook, everyone is equal because you both have to agree to be friends.  Now, there are people who accept everyone as a Facebook friend and follow everyone who follows you on Twitter, but this has some negative effects on the functioning of the applications–they are cluttered with people you really do not know.  

  • Top grades for pastors on Twitter

    Shawn Wood put a list of the Top 15 twittering pastors according to grader…

    I didn't know that there was such thing as a "Twitter grader" until now:  See http://twitter.grader.com/

    The Twitter Grade measures the relative power of a Twitter user. It is calculated as a percentile score. A grade of 66 means that the user scores higher than 66 percent of the other user profiles that have been graded.

  • The number of followers you have
  • The power of this network of followers
  • The pace of your updates
  • The completeness of your profile
  • …a few others

    • I thought I would recommend the following people in addition to Shawn's list before I saw the grading system.  Later I added their Twitter grades.  His top 15 are graded between 99.8 and 97.5.

    Other nominees in addition to Shawn Wood's list who are pastors:

    Perry Noble, pastor at NewSpring in SC 99.9

    Tony Morgan, at Perry Noble’s church NewSpring 99.9

    Doug Pagitt, emerging church writer and pastor of Solomon’s Porch in Minn. 98.3

    Mark Driscoll, Reformed writer and pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle 96.1

    Dan Kimball, evangelical writer and leader of Vintage Faith Church in Calif. 90

    Though, I would mention that few pastors actually Twitter much about church leadership issues. You can get more of that from their blogs and books.

    I would also nominate some people who write on church leadership issues but are theologians and writers rather than pastors:

    Donald Miller, writer 99.6

    Cameron Strang, Relevant Magazine editor 99.1

    Ed Stetzer, writer 97.7

    Tony Jones, writer 97.4

    Andy Crouch, writer 96.4

    Len Sweet, professor and writer 98.9

    Andrew Jones, blogger 98.5

    Frank Viola, writer 91

    Bill Easum, writer and consultant 84

    Leadership Journal’s Out of Ur blog 83

    My Twitter http://twitter.com/AndyRowell grade is 66. 

    See who I follow at:  http://twitter.com/AndyRowell/friends

    Again, I would not look for that much help about pastoring from
    Twitter. Again, look to their blogs and books for their real meat.
    Probably Sweet gives the most quality content on Twitter.

    I have written before about Twitter at:

    October 10, 2008 Catalyst Conference Happening Now and More Reflections on Twitter

    August 20, 2008 Reflections on Twitter

    Better is to see my list of 80 Church Leadership blogs which I keep up to date:

    My List of 80 Church Leadership Blogs I am watching

  • Catalyst Conference Happening Now and More Reflections on Twitter

    Just wanted to let people know that Catalyst Conference is happening right now in Atlanta. 

    Their podcast has outstanding interviews with Christian leaders. 

    Here is their website:

    Here is a report from the second day by Skye Jethani from Leadership Journal at the Out of Ur blog:
    Live from Catalyst: Day 2 Play by Play: Updates all day from the mega-conference in Atlanta.

    A number of church leadership bloggers I watch are there:

    Andy Crouch – Culture Making
    Brad Lomenick – Catalyst Conference
    CatalystSpace – Catalyst Conference Blog
    Craig Groeschel and Bobby Gruenewald – LifeChurch.tv:…
    Dave Ferguson – Velocity
    Ed Stetzer – LifeWay Research, author, EdStetzer.com
    Mark Batterson – Evotional, Thoughts on Life and Leadership
    Out of Ur – Leadership Journal's Blog
    Perry Noble – Pastor of NewSpring Church in Anderson,…
    Seth Godin – Blog
    Tim Sanders – Sanders Says
    Tim Stevens – LeadingSmart
    Tony Morgan | one of the simply strategic guys

    I have written about Twitter in the past but for those of you confused about what it is, this is a good example of what it can do.  Yesterday Skye Jethani wrote, "This is definitely the largest ministry conference I’ve been to. At least 12,000 people in the arena." Currently, lots of these people are using their Blackberries, or iPhones, etc. in the arena to access the internet and jotting quick notes about what is proceeding. See http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23Catalyst08 Some of these people include the church leaders bloggers from above:  @ahc, @perrynoble, @tpmorgan, @timastevens, @edstetzer, @MarkBatterson, @daveferguson, and @OutOfUr.

    By the way, it is also interesting that Twitterers @edcyzewski, @jasonclark, and @DanKimball are at 3 different Christian leadership conferences in addition to Catalyst.

    I have added my "Twitter badge" to the right column of the blog.  Essentially, these are short 140 character (1-2 line) updates on what I am up to.  If it isn't important to blog about, I will jot it down in Twitter. 

    As I recommend about 80 blogs to follow — (See http://www.andyrowell.net/andy_rowell/2008/03/church-leadersh.html. I also have another post that includes all of the blogs I subscribe to.  I use Google Reader to follow blogs) –  I also would recommend the people I am following on Twitter.  See http://twitter.com/AndyRowell/friends

    Twitter is fun if you want to see in real time what people you are interested in are thinking.  For example, I had fun seeing what people are thinking about watching the presidential debates or during a conference like Catalyst or Willow Creek's Leadership Summit.  It is also just interesting hearing about people's lives.  But it has its flaws as well.  It is easy to miss things. 

    Facebook is much more personal in that the people I am friends with are really real life friends whereas the people "following" me and I am "following" on Twitter are generally not people I know well in real life. 

    Facebook is also much more flexible in that you can post much more information easily.  I appreciate the "notifications" in Facebook so I don't miss ways people are trying to communicate with me. 

    Still, I respond most reliably to email.

    One last comment on Twitter.  If you are going to Twitter, say something interesting or significant.  If it is really trivial, just skip it.  Twitter is for the more trivial but not the completely trivial.  Perhaps Facebook status can have very insignificant stuff.