1. The Megachurch Tweets
Sheree Martin, J.D., LL.M., Ph.D.
And 10 undergraduate student co-authors
Media & Religion course
Samford University, Birmingham, AL
tmartin@samford.edu

2. Class Project
Media & Religion Course at Samford University
11 undergraduate students enrolled in course
Group project as part of course requirements.
I designed study to accommodate undergraduate students
who were unfamiliar with doing original research of this
nature and to maximize student engagement with data
collection and content.

3. 3 Basic Research Questions
1. Are megachurches using Twitter?
2. Of those using Twitter, what types of
tweets are they sending out?
Original tweets
Retweets
@Replies
3. What categories of content are
reflected in the megachurch tweets?

4. Methodology
Outreach/Lifeway (2011) list of largest churches
PI Identified the primary Twitter account for 14 of the 15 largest churches
● One church in the top 15 had no Twitter account
● Another church in the top 15 had no tweeted for many weeks prior to the
sample period
13 of these 15 Twitter accounts were reasonably active.
Data Collection: 12:01 a.m. Feb. 1, 2012 through midnight, Feb. 29, 2012.
Each student coded all tweets for his/her designated Twitter account.
PI (instructor) coded 3
PI also reviewed & verified coding by all students (and reclassified a few
tweets)
Intercoder Reliability (see previous point)

5. Operational Definitions
Tweet Type: Original, Retweet, @Reply
● RT: Those designated by RT, MT, via, or "...."
● @Reply: Presence of @symbol
● Original: Everything else
Tweet Category
● Spiritual Tweets
● Praise Tweets
● Tweets About Church Events/Activities
● Non-Church Promotional Tweets
● Family/Personal Tweets
● Politics/Current Events

6. Results: R1
13 of 15 churches were using Twitter, although the frequency/volume of tweets
varied widely.
4 of the 13 churches in the sample sent nearly 2/3s of all tweets during the
sample period.
● 876 of 1,332 tweets
● Saddleback, Phoenix First Assembly of God, Christ Fellowship, Gateway
Church
10 of the 13 averaged 1 tweet per day during the month, but several of these
churches tweeted in spurts, so the "average" doesn't reflect daily tweeting.

7. Results: R2
Original Tweets
● 54.5% of total tweets were original tweets
Retweets
● Collectively, 534 of 1332 (40%) were RTs.
● But Gateway alone was responsible for 1/2 of all RTs.
● Gateway RT'd 269 times during February, which is more than all the other
12 combined.
@Reply
● 73 of 1,332 tweets were @reply tweets.
● Saddleback dominates here. 24 of 73 @reply were from Saddleback
@Reply & RT are commonly accepted indicators of engagement on Twitter.
● These data indicate Saddleback and Gateway are the churches that
"engage" with followers while the rest "broadcast" info.
● This broadcasting conclusion is backed up by R3 results.

8. Results: R3
Total: 1332 tweets
● Spiritual: 341 (25%)
● Praise: 88 (7%)
● Events: 732 (55%)
● Promotional: 91 (7%)
● Personal: 78 (6%)
● Political/Social: 2 (1%)
Percentages are rounded

9. Limitations & Future Studies
Several churches had multiple Twitter accounts so can't draw good conclusions
about how those churches are using Twitter without looking at all Twitter
activity.
● Subsidiary accounts might be more engaging.
We also collected data on how senior pastor using Twitter. It's important to
consider how church staff use personal Twitter for job-related tweets.
Did not consider content sharing within the tweets. That's an important element
that needs to be included in coding.
● Photos, Links to Blogs, Links to Videos
Could have had a larger sample of churches and/or longer sample period. But
then the experience becomes less rich for students, many of whom want to
work in church media.