Many of you have asked or commented to me, “I don’t get Twitter“. It’s understandable. I felt the same way.

Here’s my explanation in three sentences: Twitter is a web service that allows other twitter members to subscribe to your tweets (and vice versa). Each tweet is like a micro-blog post because it’s limited to 140 characters and are written and published on the twitter website, via Instant Messenger (IM), or via mobile phone text message (SMS). Subscribers can be notified by RSS, SMS, or IM.

The idea, as I get it now, is that you have people you follow (subscribe to) and you follow others. When one of them has something short to say, you’ll hear it (that’s why it’s called micro-blogging).

But what in the world would you say in 140 characters or less? Anything.

I’ve always said a blog post is like an email that has “the world” in the cc: line. A tweet, then, is like a text message to a group of people wanting to receive them.

Reading The Big Juicy Twitter Guide by Caroline Middlebrook really helped a lot. Go check it out and let me know what you think.

Besides personal friends, there are a few tweets I’ve been following: CNN Breaking News, Darth Vader, woot, and hurricanes among others. Some of these I have set to notify me via RSS which is a little slower, and some pop up immediately in my Google Talk.

I’ve been contemplating how Twitter could be used for ministry. I think one way would be for communication to your staff team. You all subscribe to each other and when you create a tweet, they all know about it. I think it could be a great “breaking news” service or used like a group alarm clock (”meeting in 30 minutes”). Because, like a group email, typing it once goes to all subscribed. It’s almost like a chat room.

If you use Twitter, have you incorporated it into any ministry practices? After you get an account, feel free to follow me (though I’m using it to be more personal and not so much ministry-related).