SEATTLE - The Mars Hill Church in Seattle's Ballard neighborhood is not your grandma's church. On Sunday, the pastor's sermon was being broadcast on large video screens to accommodate his laryngitis and the congregants in church were broadcasting on their iPhones.
They weren't talking, but "Twittering," typing in brief thoughts or messages for their friends to read in real time.
"How does the service impact them, what does worship feel like to them and its a good way for them to kind of tell their friends what church is about without their friends even coming in the building," aid Kyle Firstenberg, Mars Hill Campus Administrator.
Twittering goes on throughout the entire service, with the messages, or Tweets, popping up on Facebook pages or the church's official Twitter page.
"You see literally dozens and dozens of people during the service writing #MHC and you can search that on Twitter and just see everything that our people's thoughts, their ideas," said Mike Anderson.
"We're a little bit behind where America is in a lot of things," said Lichlin Payne.
Payne is from Australia and is spending a year visiting numerous churches around the states.
He enjoys being able to Twitter his religious experience with far away friends, and says church etiquette hasn't disappeared, its just evolved.
"I remember 10, 15 years ago you couldn't wear a hat in church, and now you can get out your mobile phones and your iPhones and you can Twitter so these things change and you've got to move with the times," he said.
Mars Hill Church has seven campuses around Western Washington, and twittering is welcome at all of them.
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