Cielo is my third YouTube video/slide show. This song is new enough that there isn’t a comparable YouTube video (until now). View my other YouTube videos.

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This is my second YouTube slideshow/video, this one featuring Indiana Bible College’s version of Hosanna set to my slides. God used Hosanna to “open up my eyes to the things unseen”. View my other YouTube videos.

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This is one of my favorite worship videos. Is it the sign language, the enthusiasm, the song, the all black attire … ? You tell me. Watch the video and tell me what you think.

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Whether I’m online or local, I’ve noticed that women flock to Bible studies and men do not. Why is that? I know men go to Bible studies, but why do they mostly not go, especially to groups that are designated for men only? Share your views, whether you’re male or female, and help us figure out how not to reach men so that we can eventually reach men.

I am a case in point, I am involved in these ministries:

• Tworship on Twitter (est. 20% male)
• Tworship INDOORS (est. 30% male)
• Tworship Talk (est. 20% male)
• Beauty From Ashes (est 30% male)
• The Potter’s Workshop (est. 5% male)

[shaking head]

Why do I not participate in all-male ministries?

• Egos get in the way
• Men don’t share as openly, leading to dull and predictable discussions
• Men are similar to me, they do not complement me, I prefer diversity

What do you say?

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If you worship with #Tworship on Twitter or would like to participate in #Tworship Talk, then you’ve come to the right place. Every night at 9pm EST 8 CST 6 PST on Twitter, a group gathers under the leadership of myself @mcProdigal and/or Marie @spreadingJoy to worship through synchronized YouTube worship videos, one beginning at 9 followed by a second that begins immediately following the first. This group can be easily followed by clicking on the hashtag #Tworship or by using our Drive-In green screen. You can see all of us tweeting praise and lyrics as the songs play in worship of our worthy King.

A group meets on Tuesday nights immediately following these two songs, around 9:10 ET. We call this #Tworship Talk because we leave Twitter temporarily and go to tinyChat for the topical discussion featuring webcams, headsets and talk. The tinyChat technology that enables us to fellowship in this way is free-of-charge.

Look around the room and you will see people filing in, their names (normally their Twitter names) appear in a box showing attendance. You enter the room immediately following the second Tworship song; you’ll see Marie and I tweeting that it’s time to go. Use of webcams and/or headsets is optional and highly dependent on your personal bandwidth (internet speed). They will not work for everyone; most enter the room with neither “on” and participate entirely through the text-only chat box. You can generally enter the Tworship room and watch Marie @spreadingJoy and I share through our webcam/headsets and participate in chat with only marginal bandwidth. We do not recommend that you use your own webcam/headset on the first try, it’s simpler not to. A small number of our participants cannot participate at all due to slow and/or inconsistent internet speeds. If you have any issues, then let us know and we will work with you offline (during non-Tworship hours) to resolve them. If you have a working webcam and headset, you are welcome to participate freely in our discussions.

How do you enter the tinyChat room to participate in Tworship Talk? Here’s the link:

Tworship Talk (password: spreadingjoy)

Once you follow this link, you will be asked to login using your account from Twitter or Facebook. We recommend that you login using your Twitter account so that your screen name will be the name we know you by. You will also see a list of those present and a chat box generally full of typed messages, mostly people greeting one another. This chat box remains active throughout the session, even while someone is speaking.

Generally, the Tworship Talk session runs from about 9:15pm EST (after the second Tworship song on Twitter) to about 10; sometimes the Tworship crowd gets very lively in worship and/or chat and we’ll carry on past that time. You are always free to exit when you choose by closing the tinyChat window.

If you’d like to check out your equipment for fitness for this task , the tinyChat room is available at the link above from about 8:30pm EST (one half-hour early). You can click on the link, login and have a look around even if no one is there — it’s a cool place. When you’re satisfied, exit and return at Tworship time or just hang out and chat until Tworship Talk begins.

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Beauty from Ashes is a study that I wrote and then delivered both online through Tworship Indoors and through my local church this summer. It’s a great blessing when I am given an opportunity to share how God has worked directly in my life and then see it replicated in the lives of others. The greatest blessing is having the tables turned and being blessed in return.

This must be a part of what Jesus meant when he directed us to love our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 22:39). I had these kinds of experiences with my neighbors at Trinity Evangelical Church in Peterborough, NH and with neighbors from all over the world online. I think of the Holy Spirit as a busy fellow because when He shows Himself so obviously, He shines His light on everyone in the area, not just on the more likely targets.

To everyone who participated in any fashion in the study locally or online, know that you showed me God’s “beauty”, His poetry in your lives; I thank you for that. May God rain down blessings for 1,000 generations on you and yours.

Special thanks to my wife Laurie @mrsmcProdigal for her help delivering Beauty from Ashes locally and to my old friend Marie @spreadingJoy for her assistance online.

Beauty from Ashes Summary:

• It’s about God.
• Everything is connected.
• Everything matters.

Sources:

Romans 8:28

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Ephesians 2:10

For we are God’s workmanship [poiema: poetry], created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

We searched for these truths in the lives of major Old Testament characters.

• Jacob
• Joseph

Example: How did God show his poetic touch by having the Pharaoh’s cupbearer and baker thrown into the prison Joseph was in?

• Moses
• David

Example: How does God show His poetry by sending Jerusalem’s ne’er-do-wells to join forces with David in his cave?

• Elijah
• Ruth & Naomi
• Esther

Our theme music is below.

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If you worship with #Tworship on Twitter or would like to participate in #Tworship Indoors for any reason, you’ve come to the right place. Every night at 9pm EST 8 CST 6 PST on Twitter, a group gathers under the leadership of myself @mcProdigal and/or Marie @spreadingJoy to worship through synchronized YouTube worship videos, one beginning at 9 followed by a second that begins immediately following the first. This group can be easily followed by clicking on the hashtag #Tworship. You can see all of us tweeting praise and lyrics as the songs play in worship of our worthy King.

Periodically, we add a Bible study/group discussion following these two songs. We call this #Tworship Indoors because we leave Twitter temporarily and go to iLinc for the study featuring webcams, mikes and chat. The iLinc technology that enables us to fellowship is generously supplied by Setting Boundaries, LLC, an outreach program to parents of prodigals and/or adult children with issues. You will see their logo when you enter the iLinc “room” as well as a welcome from Tworship.

Look around the room and you will see people filing in, their names (normally their Twitter names) appear in a box showing attendance. You enter the room immediately following the second Tworship song; you’ll see Marie and I tweeting that it’s time to go. Use of webcams and/or microphones is optional and highly dependent on your personal bandwidth (internet speed). They will not work for everyone; most enter the room with neither “on” and participate entirely through the chat box. You can generally enter the Tworship room, watch me share through my webcam/mike and chat with only marginal bandwidth. We do not recommend that you use your own webcam/mike on the first try, it’s simpler not to. A small number of our participants cannot participate at all due to slow and/or inconsistent internet speeds. If you have any issues, then let us know and we will work with you offline (during non-Tworship hours) to resolve them.

How do you enter the iLinc room to participate in Tworship Indoors? Here’s the link followed by a screenshot:

Tworship Indoors

Once you follow this link, a small application will be downloaded to your computer that will speed up your connection for this purpose only. This step is only required the first time that you enter the Tworship room. You will be asked for a name and email address. The email address is required by iLinc but we do not use it for any purpose. You should hear a song playing right away to indicate success in accessing the room. That is our welcome song that plays while people are filing into the room. You will also see a list of who is present and a chat box generally full of typed messages, mostly people greeting one another. This chat box remains active throughout the session, even while I am speaking.

Generally, the Indoors session runs from about 9:15pm EST (after the second Tworship song on Twitter) to about 10; sometimes the Tworship crowd gets very lively in worship and we’ll carry on past that time with praise videos played within the iLinc room. You are always free to exit when you choose by closing the iLinc window.

If you’d like to check out your equipment for fitness for this task or just to download iLinc in advance so you don’t have that delay during live Tworship, the iLinc room is available at the link above from about 8pm EST (one hour early). Click on the link, download the room, enter it and have a look around. It’s a cool place. When you’re satisfied, exit and return at Tworship time or just hang out and chat until Tworship Indoors begins.

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1. Revelation Song -- Kari Jobe
2. Agnus Dei -- Michael W. Smith
3. Worthy is the Lamb -- Miriam Webster
4. Here I Am to Worship -- Hillsong
5. God With Us -- MercyMe
6. The Potter’s Hand -- Hillsong
7. Jesus Messiah -- Chris Tomlin
8. You’re Beautiful -- Phil Wickham
9. On My Cross -- FFH
10. Mighty to Save -- Hillsong

Sit back and listen to the Top 10 Worship Songs/Videos of All Time playlist — hear all 10 songs, watch all 10 videos uninterrupted.

This list was first played on Twitter for Tworship at 9pm EST on May 14, 2010 \o/

The greatest moment of all time in any worship video is exactly 4:31 into #3 Worthy is the Lamb, when the Korean Dance Group comes charging forward. Whatever your trials are, this one moment will lift you right out of your chair.

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According to John Piper, pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, worship is the one thing that Christians can do hedonistically (Desiring God). We can indulge and overindulge ourselves in worship. I do this at every opportunity and can be seen on Twitter and Facebook every week night at 9pm Eastern leading Tworship. Why? I know God’s in it because I cannot NOT do it, it’s not in me to stop. I surround myself with worshipful YouTube videos and some of my favorite worshiping friends and we listen together to the same video started at the same time. All participants comment online to the lyrics of the song as inspired and sometimes just make comments like “I love this song.”

What EXACTLY must you do to participate in Tworship?

1. Watch for the Tworship songs to be tweeted. Generally two YouTube worship video links are tweeted 30 minutes before Tworship begins; Tworship begins Monday-Friday at 9pm Eastern, 8pm Central, 6pm Pacific. We tweet the songs early for those who need to listen early or late due to schedule conflicts and to build some anticipation for those who will participate live. Another tip off that we’re nearing a start is you’ll see me tweeting Bible verses about worship followed by prayer about worship.

2. Start the first video on the hour exactly or wait for a tweet from myself or co-leader Marie @spreadingJoy that says “GO!!!” followed by the song name and artist. Either way you are off to a successful start.

3. Wait for our “GO!!!” tweet for song 2. Both “GO!!!” tweets include the link of the song everyone is doing next.

4. Praise away … make any comments that seem appropriate … let the Spirit lead you to worship.

5. Be encouraged by reading the tweets of the other Tworship participants. We use the hashtag (the thing in red) #Tworship in our tweets. This means that you can click on that and open a column just for Tworship in Tweetdeck. This makes it easy to watch and you can interact at will. If you prefer, lean back in your chair and watch #Tworship without leaving this screen by scrolling down to the green “Get your praise on … Tworship on Twitter” just below. It updates automatically, there’s no need to refresh the screen. You can even reply from right here.

6. Watch the thank you’s done by me and/or @spreadingJoy when the two songs are over. Follow the tweeps in this list and you will find yourself surrounded by an amazing group.

Tworship began by accident. I had a habit of rallying tweeps to pray for people in crisis, nothing unusual there, but I would synchronize the prayers by telling them to begin their prayer at a certain time. One night I was discussing worship music with fellow worship music-lover Marie Wikle @SpreadingJoy and she suggested that I listen to How Great is Our God by Chris Tomlin. I suggested that we could listen to it together by beginning it at exactly 9pm Eastern. There was a flood of comments and retweets due to the popularity of the song and the idea that we could worship together by synchronizing the start time, so we did it again … and again and Tworship was born. Marie @spreadingJoy of Spreading Joy Corporation, continues to co-lead this with me; we are joined each

Click to enlarge

night by 50-150 worshipful spirits from Facebook and Twitter for each of the two songs. These loyal worshipers click on the two links between 500 and 1,000 times per night and represent a total reach of more than 71,000 tweeps (per TweetReach), all building a throne of praise for our Lord, one praise at a time.

I not surprised that God would use Twitter, Facebook and Tworship in this way. God appears to be completely comfortable with technology. He’s waiting for us to catch up!

I was recently interviewed by The Worship Journals, read that interview here.

Richard Mayhan
Tworship™
Pastoral Counsel, The Potter’s Workshop
ProdigalReturns.com

If you’d like to follow me or the Tworship YouTube Channel, use the Follow Me button to the far right.

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