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What Twitterers Are Giving Up for Lent (2024 Edition)

Saturday, February 17th, 2024
Word cloud featuring Twitter, Social Networking, and Alcohol

This year, the usual trio of Twitter, social networking, and alcohol led the list, with Twitter taking the #1 spot for the first time since 2021.

This report draws from 9,817 tweets, the lowest number of Tweets I’ve ever tracked and down from a high of 646,000 in 2014. It only took ten tweets to make the top 100 this year, compared to 228 that year. On the other hand, the list of items in the top 100 has remained fairly stable: 56 of the top items from 2014 are also in the 2024 list.

Relationships

With Ash Wednesday falling on Valentine’s Day this year for the first time since 2018 (next time will be 2029, and then not again until 2170), relationship-related tweets rose. This year saw an increase in “situationships,” though it didn’t reach the top 100.

Chart showing giveups for: men + boys, love, valentines day, women + girls. Chart showing giveups for: yearning, relationships, simping.

Sin

Giving up sin had a big uptick this year. I don’t have an explanation.

Chart showing giveups for: Sin.

The Press

U.S. President Joe Biden said that he was giving up “you guys” for Lent, a reference to reporters.

Chart showing giveups for: the press, reporters, you guys.

Taylor Swift

Only eight tweets mentioned celebrities this year; seven of them were for Taylor Swift.

Chart showing giveups for: taylor swift.

Top 100 Things Twitterers Gave Up for Lent in 2024

RankWordCountChange from last year’s rank
1.Twitter413+1
2.Social networking348+1
3.Alcohol341-2
4.Lent2380
5.Chocolate1990
6.Sweets164+4
7.Meat142+7
8.Giving up things142+7
9.Swearing127-3
10.Coffee113-3
11.Soda112-3
12.Sugar107+6
13.Sex86-2
14.Lying71+11
15.Smoking70+8
16.Men70-6
17.Fast food59-5
18.Marijuana57-5
19.Catholicism500
20.Candy47+7
21.Religion47-1
22.Work46-6
23.Red meat46+15
24.Sin45+36
25.Bread420
26.Chips41-2
27.Liquor40-6
28.Love40+31
29.Valentines day38 
30.Tiktok37-14
31.Instagram36-8
32.You34-10
33.Food340
34.Sobriety32+6
35.Life32-1
36.Beer32-6
37.The press31 
38.Complaining29+10
39.Hope29-2
40.Hate22+4
41.Gambling21+8
42.Procrastination21+9
43.Him21-14
44.Yearning20+24
45.Cookies20+9
46.Fried food20-6
47.Booze20-6
48.Carbs19-1
49.Masturbation19-18
50.Junk food19-3
51.Porn18-2
52.Ice cream18+2
53.Christianity18-5
54.Caffeine18-19
55.Hard liquor18-3
56.Energy drinks18+4
57.Gossip17-1
58.Vaping17-13
59.Pork17-6
60.Losing16-7
61.Desserts16-6
62.Snacking16-12
63.Coke15-12
64.Being gay15-14
65.My will to live15-9
66.Homework15-20
67.Meat on fridays14 
68.Sanity14-14
69.Being a hater14-21
70.TV14-11
71.Video games14-17
72.Rice14-20
73.New Year’s resolutions13-12
74.Celibacy13-14
75.Negativity13-13
76.Dairy13-20
77.Church13-21
78.Reporters12 
79.Pizza12-26
80.Online shopping12-30
81.Facebook12-42
82.Sarcasm12-22
83.Women12-34
84.Fizzy drinks11-19
85.Being nice11-24
86.Cocaine11-22
87.Gooning11-19
88.Donald Trump11-20
89.Wine11-42
90.Breathing11-38
91.Dating11-29
92.Eggs11-28
93.Nicotine10-42
94.Depression10-36
95.Scrolling10 
96.Posting10-31
97.People10-57
98.Being single10-38
99.Anger10-33
100.Cake10-39

Top Categories

RankCategoryNumber of Tweets
1.food1,698
2.technology953
3.smoking/drugs/alcohol712
4.habits612
5.irony573
6.relationship329
7.religion212
8.sex210
9.politics83
10.school/work79
11.entertainment67
12.money45
13.health/hygiene34
14.shopping25
15.sports24
16.possessions8
17.celebrity8
18.weather4
19.clothes1

Track What People Are Giving Up for Lent on Twitter in 2024

Monday, February 12th, 2024

See the top 100 things people are giving up for Lent in 2024 on Twitter (i.e., X), which will be updated through February 16, 2024. You can also use the Historical Lent Tracker to see trends since 2009, though 2024 is still in flux, so I wouldn’t draw any conclusions about 2024 yet.

As I write this post on Monday morning, with about 350 tweets analyzed, “social networking,” “twitter,” and “chocolate” lead the list.

This year, since it would cost me $5,000 to use Twitter’s API to track what’s previously been free for the Lent Tracker, I’m having to take a more manual and sampled approach to tweets, which also means the results won’t be available in realtime the way they have been in years past; you can expect them to be updated a few times per day.

Look for the usual post-mortem on February 17, 2024.

What Twitterers Are Giving up for Lent (2017 Edition)

Sunday, March 5th, 2017

A Wordle (wordle.net) of the top 100 things people said they were giving up for Lent this year on Twitter.

This year, alcohol topped the list for the first time; it’s been hovering in the top five for the past few years, last year landing at a then-record #3. Possibly the recent popularity of Dry January (according to the article, 16% of British adults participated in 2016) is carrying over to Lent.

“Chips” cracked the top five this year largely because British Prime Minister Theresa May announced she was giving them up for Lent. This announcement had knock-on effects lower down the list, with “her favourite thing” and “live mice” both coming in at #88. The announcement of the potential closure of a U.K. chip factory the next day led to further jokes. For my U.K. readers, yes, I know you call them crisps (and your “chips” are U.S. “French fries”); I would now tell myself in 2009, when I first started compiling this list, not to combine “chips” and “crisps” into a single line, but it’s too late now.

Donald Trump is a big winner this year, landing at #22, just behind “Facebook” but ahead of “hope.” “The presidency” comes in at #52. In all, there are 1,002 tweets mentioning “Trump,” “President,” and “POTUS,” which is good enough for #10 on the list if we were to combine them all into a single line.

“The dirtiest thing” (#66) refers to a campaign to give up non-renewable energy.

This year, 73,334 tweets (excluding retweets) specifically mention giving up something. This total is up from last year’s 60,000 tweets; I used broader search terms this year (“lent” and “lent2017”) than I have in the past. In all, this year the analysis covers 694,244 tweets, up from 200,000 last year–again, largely because of the broader search terms.

Rank Word Count Change from last year’s rank
1. Alcohol 2,396 +2
2. Social networking 2,148 0
3. Chocolate 2,143 -2
4. Twitter 2,064 0
5. Chips 1,416 +15
6. Swearing 1,395 0
7. School 1,189 -2
8. Soda 1,186 -1
9. Fast food 1,092 +1
10. Sweets 990 -2
11. Coffee 969 -2
12. Meat 909 -1
13. Lent 906 0
14. College 894 +5
15. Beer 888 +8
16. Bread 691 0
17. Sugar 660 -5
18. Life 645 +11
19. Sex 612 -1
20. You 609 -5
21. Facebook 594 -7
22. Donald Trump 520 +62
23. Hope 456 +31
24. Work 442 +3
25. Boys 433 -1
26. Religion 406 +4
27. Junk food 401 -6
28. Homework 393 -6
29. Pizza 373 -12
30. Smoking 296 +5
31. Candy 288 -5
32. Cheese 284 +4
33. Marijuana 267 +6
34. Starbucks 265 -6
35. Catholicism 259 +12
36. Ice cream 249 -5
37. Cookies 227 +1
38. F***boys 220 -13
39. Wine 219 -2
40. Being petty 212 +21
41. Instagram 210 -8
41. Breathing 210 +22
42. Rice 209 0
43. Carbs 202 +5
43. Fried food 202 +6
44. Makeup 201 +2
45. Shopping 190 +3
46. People 189 +4
47. Virginity 185 +12
48. Red meat 184 +3
49. Stuff 180 -5
50. Snapchat 168 -16
51. French fries 166 -6
52. The presidency 164 +82
53. Procrastination 159 +3
54. Men 158 +18
55. Sobriety 156 +5
56. Liquor 155 +6
57. My will to live 154 +77
58. Food 150 -15
58. Negativity 150 -3
59. Takeout 148 +7
60. Dairy 144 +6
61. McDonald’s 143 -8
62. Booze 141 -4
63. Masturbation 138 -8
64. Netflix 136 -32
64. Hot Cheetos 136 -1
65. Eating out 133 +6
66. The dirtiest thing 132 +28
67. Complaining 130 -10
68. Desserts 126 -16
69. Caffeine 125 -19
70. Coke 124 -9
71. Lying 123 +15
72. Sleep 115 -2
73. Him 114 +3
74. Feelings 108 -22
75. Fizzy drinks 103 -12
76. My job 99 +15
76. Juice 99 +1
76. Chick Fil A 99 -8
77. Pasta 95 -12
78. Pancakes 94 -7
79. Nothing 91 +14
80. Online shopping 89 -17
81. Naps 88 +9
82. Church 87 -1
83. Living 86 +43
84. Memes 83 +27
85. Cake 82 -15
86. My phone 79 -33
87. Stress 78 -14
88. Eating live mice 77  
88. My attitude 77 -10
88. Caring 77 -24
88. Her favourite treat 77  
89. Abbreviations 75 +41
90. Politics 74 +3
90. Sweet tea 74 -2
91. Potatoes 72 0
91. Classes 72 +10
92. Boba 70 +10
93. Christianity 69 -13
94. TV 65 -11
94. Sarcasm 65 -20
95. Taco Bell 63 -20
95. Donuts 63 +6
96. Oxygen 62 +18
96. Porn 62 -24
97. Studying 60 -9
97. My boyfriend 60 +3
97. The gym 60 +8
97. Diet coke 60 -30
98. Everything 59 -11
98. Anxiety 59 +13
99. New Year’s resolutions 58 -20
100. Chipotle 57 -31
100. Pork 57 -16

Fast Food

Chipotle now lands behind even Taco Bell.

In n Out continues its rise.

Snack Food

Hot Cheetos continue their snack-food dominance.

Potato chips are up a little because of Theresa May.

Adulting

It’s a verb now. Or at least a gerund.

Adulting overtakes being an adult this year.

Emojis

Just over 14,000 tweets (19%) included an emoji this year. I haven’t tracked emoji usage before, so I can’t say how that compares to previous years.

Here are the top five emojis used this year, along with the most-popular items given up:

Emoji Tweets Most-popular Given Up
😂 2,428 chocolate, alcohol, twitter
😭 1,154 chocolate, sweets, fast food
😩 889 chocolate, sweets, fast food
🙃 875 chocolate, coffee, fast food
🙄 640 chocolate, alcohol, social media

Conversely, here are the most-popular things given up with tweets that include emojis:

Given up Tweets Most-popular Emojis*
chocolate 793 🍫 🙈 😫
social media 549 ✌ 👋 🙏
alcohol 537 😅 ♀ 😬
twitter 482 ✌ 👋 🙏
sweets 355 😅 🍬 🍫

* Excluding the top-ten emojis for the year.

Retweets

The rest of this data excludes retweets, but here are the three tweets mentioning Lent that drew the most retweets. I feel that this list encapsulates Twitter; not many other top-three lists would include college humor, the pope, and Rick “Never Gonna Give You Up” Astley.

Categories

Here are my categories for the top 740 things people gave up:

Rank Category Number of Tweets
1. food 17,017
2. technology 5,659
3. habits 4,962
4. smoking/drugs/alcohol 4,880
5. irony 3,495
6. school/work 3,470
7. relationship 2,541
8. sex 1,179
9. religion 1,055
10. politics 911
11. generic 679
12. entertainment 447
13. shopping 407
14. health/hygiene 328
15. money 279
16. sports 152
17. possessions 103
18. clothes 64
19. weather 28
20. celebrity 20

Media Coverage

The Lent Tracker received some media attention this year:

  1. Christianity Today
  2. International Business Times
  3. The Sun
  4. Daily Herald
  5. Baptist News
  6. Cleveland.com
  7. Pajamas Media
  8. Catholic News Service

Emoji in the news

Wednesday, July 13th, 2016

I have two emoji-related pieces out today (since World Emoji Day is coming Sunday–mark your calendars, or, alternately just use the calendar emoji (📅), which on iOS says July 17).

The first is Emojis Reveal How Minorities Tweet the Bible Differently at Christianity Today, which looks at how Bible verses tweeted with darker-skin-toned emoji differ from those with lighter skin tones. I felt the topic differences between the two groups were especially stark (“money management” vs. “long-distance relationships,” for example).

I couldn’t find a good place for the following chart, which shows overall which emoji are most associated with darker and lighter tones (as tweeted with Bible verses). Fingers pointing upward (👍, 👆, ☝) are apparently a light-toned gesture, while bowing deeply (🙇) is a dark-toned one. It makes me wonder whether bowing and upward pointing carry similar semantics for different groups. It’s also a little funny to me how fingers pointing every other direction except up (👇, 👉, 👈) are more common among tweets with darker tones. And I don’t know what to make of the dark-toned raised fist (✊) vs. the light-toned fist bump (👊).

Nail Polish, Bowing, and Writing are most associated with darker tones, while Santa Claus, Thumbs Up, and Finger Pointing Up are most associated with darker tones.

The data behind the article is available for you to work with if you’re interested. You may want to turn off the filter in the “Tone users” column if you want the complete list of verses and not just the more-common ones.

The second post, All the 🌲🌳 of the field will 👏, is at the Bible Gateway Blog and talks about how you can now conduct emoji searches on Bible Gateway. The search engine preprocesses your query, replacing certain emoji with English translations. As with all translations, a certain amount of semantic leakage is inevitable, so searching for 💀 uses the literal translation, “skull,” rather than how people often mean it: “death.” I was tempted to translate 🕴 (man in business suit levitating) as something related to the rapture, but I restrained myself. Instead, it returns no results.

Track in Real Time What People Are Giving Up for Lent in 2016

Monday, February 8th, 2016

See the top 100 things people are giving up in 2016 for Lent on Twitter, continually updated until February 13, 2016. You can also use the Historical Lent Tracker to see trends since 2009, though 2016 is still in flux, so I wouldn’t draw any conclusions about 2016 yet.

As I write this post, with about 2,000 tweets analyzed, perennial favorites “chocolate,” “alcohol,” and “social networking” lead the list. Currently, “cruelty” is #6, reflecting a campaign by PETA UK asking Christians to go vegan for Lent. With the New Hampshire primaries on Tuesday and several U.S. presidential candidates likely to withdraw from the race, I’m expecting jokes about how the candidates are giving up their presidential aspirations for Lent.

Look for the usual post-mortem on February 13, 2016.

The Bible on Twitter in 2015

Thursday, December 31st, 2015

Here’s a quick look at the 40 million Bible verses shared on Twitter in 2015.

Through the Year

As with last year, in 2015 we see the prevalence of through-the-Bible-in-a-year plans that feature certain verses on particular days. Also note the cluster in Leviticus and Deuteronomy after the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage.

This graph emphasizes that many people tweet Bible reading plans.

Most-Popular Verses

Rank Verse Tweets Text
1. Phil 4:13 262,150 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
2. John 3:16 206,480 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
3. Jer 29:11 127,355 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
4. Rom 8:18 115,719 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
5. Rom 8:28 115,588 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
6. Prov 3:5 110,216 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
7. 1Pet 5:7 98,974 Casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.
8. Rom 5:8 97,841 But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9. 2Tim 1:7 88,924 For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.
10. Ps 56:3 86,998 When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.

You can also download a text file (411 KB) with the complete list of verses and how many times they were tweeted in 2015.

Top Verse Sharers

Here are the top non-spam (as far as I can tell) accounts and how many Bible verse tweets they tweeted this year (including retweets):

  1. JohnPiper (109,589 tweets)
  2. Franklin_Graham (94,341 tweets)
  3. DangeRussWilson (83,176 tweets)
  4. JosephPrince (76,031 tweets)
  5. siwon407 (31,141 tweets)
  6. DaveRamsey (29,690 tweets)
  7. TimTebow (29,212 tweets)
  8. mainedcm (28,687 tweets)
  9. JoyceMeyer (25,381 tweets)
  10. BishopJakes (24,243 tweets)
  11. jamesmacdonald (23,753 tweets)
  12. camerondallas (22,499 tweets)
  13. JordanElizabeth (21,735 tweets)
  14. AllyBrooke (21,108 tweets)
  15. Kevinwoo91 (19,735 tweets)
  16. ToriKelly (19,716 tweets)
  17. ihopkc (16,920 tweets)
  18. revraycollins (16,211 tweets)
  19. InTouchMin (15,888 tweets)
  20. ToddAdkins (13,825 tweets)

Most-Retweeted Tweets

Here are the year’s most-retweeted tweets with Bible verses in them. Here you’ll find tweets from various pop stars, Vine personality Cameron Dallas, someone named Cory Machado (I’m unclear why he has a million followers), a fan account for boxer Manny Pacquiao (not the boxer himself), and Tim Tebow. I don’t understand Korean pop star’s Siwon Choi’s tweet at all.

Bible Spam

Around 20 million of the 40 million verses shared on Twitter this year, as far as I can tell, came from Bible spam accounts–accounts that do nothing but tweet Bible verses all day (hundreds of times a day in some cases). I removed the most-prolific accounts from the above data, but undoubtedly it still contains tweets from many Bible spammers.

Heralds of the Emojipocalypse

Saturday, May 9th, 2015

The final slide of my presentation (.pptx, .pdf) at last weekend’s BibleTech conference half-jokingly argued that 100% of digital Bible notes would contain emoji by the year 2028, up from 1-2% in 2015:

An exponential curve extends from 1% in 2015 to 100% in 2028.

Unknown to me, the previous day, Instagram had published an analysis showing how 40% of Instagram posts contained emoji in April 2015. Already they’re well on their way to over 50% of all posts including emoji–some countries (Finland, France) are already there, which in turn means that the emojipocalypse may arrive sooner than expected.

Instagram’s analysis ascribes consistent meanings to certain emoji. For example, they provide several religion-related meanings for the so-called* “praise the Lord” emoji:

🙌: … #yeslawd, … #stayblessed, … thou

“Thou” in particular suggests that people are sharing KJV-based Bible verse pictures with this emoji attached to them.

The Instagram study, with its high emoji percentages, indicates to me that people use emoji when they’re already primed for images and especially when they’re sharing a photo. This explanation makes a lot of sense to me, and I feel silly for not thinking of it earlier, especially considering that a whole section of my talk discusses how people approach the Bible differently when images are involved. Let’s look at the data:

Percent of Tweets with Emoji

Bible verses shared on Twitter Links to Bible websites on Twitter
All tweets Excluding retweets All tweets Excluding retweets
With image 14.7% 13.3% 24.8% 6.2%
Without image 2.4% 3.0% 2.7% 2.4%

There are two datasets here: one tracks all the Bible verses shared on Twitter (for one day only: about 200,000 tweets), and the other tracks links to Bible websites on Twitter (for all of April 2015: about two million tweets). In both datasets we see that people are far more likely to include emoji when their tweet includes an image than when it doesn’t.

So there you go: emoji usage correlates with image usage, at least on Twitter and at least with Bible verses.

Separately, the Bible-verse Twitter tracker now keeps a daily total of emoji shared with Bible verses.

* No one actually calls it this.

What Twitterers Are Giving up for Lent (2015 Edition)

Saturday, February 21st, 2015

The top 100 things that people on Twitter are giving up for Lent in 2015.

“School” once again tops the list of things Twitterers are giving up for Lent, with over 5% of tweets mentioning it. This year’s list is quite stable compared to last year’s, especially in the top ten.

My hypothesis last year was that “school” was so high because Ash Wednesday coincided with spring break at many schools, but that isn’t the case this year. In the UK, A-Level exams are coming up at the beginning of March, so that may be part of it.

Another surprise for me this year, given the cold weather gripping the northeastern United States, is that weather-related tweets aren’t more popular; as a category, they move up one place from last year (to #12 from #13), though individually “snow” moves up eight places and “cold weather” moves up 79 places.

Hot Cheetos continue their run, making the top 100 for the first time.

The biggest surprise to me is #12, f***boys. I wasn’t familiar with this term before, and I’m still not totally sure what it means. Knowyourmeme.com says that it’s “used as a pejorative toward men who are perceived as oversexed or disrespectful toward women,” while also serving as a meme involving skeletons on Tumblr. It’s easily the biggest gainer this year.

This list draws from 409,000 tweets during February 14 to 21 that mention giving up something for Lent and, except as noted, excludes retweets.

Rank Word Count Change from last year’s rank
1. School 6,281 0
2. Chocolate 4,293 0
3. Twitter 3,876 0
4. Alcohol 3,216 +1
5. Social networking 3,090 +2
6. Swearing 2,887 -2
7. Soda 2,473 -1
8. Sweets 2,122 0
9. Fast food 2,056 0
10. Coffee 1,706 +4
11. College 1,631 +27
12. F***boys 1,527  
13. You 1,462 +5
14. Lent 1,348 -4
15. Meat 1,335 -4
16. Homework 1,208 -4
17. Sex 1,165 -2
18. Junk food 1,112 -5
19. Pizza 1,067 +1
20. Bread 1,060 -3
21. Chips 905 -5
22. Facebook 853 -3
23. Boys 665 +6
24. Candy 625 -2
25. Netflix 610 +12
26. Religion 602 -2
27. Beer 596 +5
28. Starbucks 591 -7
29. Work 575 -2
30. Sugar 565 +15
31. Instagram 554 -8
32. Ice cream 520 -4
33. Life 489 0
34. Winter 454 +2
35. Smoking 441 -4
36. Wine 435 +13
37. Me 434 +10
38. Cookies 430 -12
39. Chipotle 422 +4
40. Snapchat 408 +16
41. Feelings 393 +27
42. Marijuana 381 -12
43. Shopping 374 -3
44. Rice 357 +10
45. My phone 351 -6
45. Virginity 351 -21
46. Catholicism 337 +9
47. Food 329 -13
48. Cheese 315 -2
49. Stuff 307 -8
50. McDonald’s 300 -15
51. Carbs 295 -1
52. Snow 284 +8
53. Desserts 276 +8
54. French fries 257 +9
55. People 248 +4
56. Coke 245 +1
57. Fried food 242 -5
58. Red meat 237 +14
59. Masturbation 233 -15
60. Selfies 230 -18
61. Hope 224 +23
61. Sobriety 224 -14
62. Procrastination 219 -4
63. Complaining 216 +14
64. Makeup 214 +2
64. Caffeine 214 -12
65. Booze 211 +17
65. Negativity 211 +5
66. Takeout 210 -2
67. Eating out 184 +22
68. Cake 183 +17
69. Chick Fil A 179 +31
70. Obama 178 -5
71. Fizzy drinks 175 -9
72. Porn 173 -4
73. Diet Coke 172 0
74. Pancakes 159 +5
75. Breathing 158 0
76. Classes 157 +55
77. Sleep 156 +6
78. Peanut butter 152 +2
79. Cold weather 151 +79
80. Hot Cheetos 145 +25
81. Liquor 144 +13
82. Tea 143 -4
83. Dunkin Donuts 138 +27
84. Taco Bell 137 -17
85. Men 135 +21
86. Sarcasm 133 -12
87. Winning 127 +32
88. Online shopping 126 +19
89. Sweet tea 125 -8
90. Caring 124 -14
91. Pasta 123 -5
92. Naps 122 +23
93. Juice 117 +5
94. Nothing 115 -25
94. A levels 115 +37
94. Being mean 115 +4
95. Him 113 +22
96. New Year’s resolutions 112 +34
97. My swag 111 -27
97. Gluten 111 +4
98. Exercise 110 -8
98. Church 110 -4
99. My boyfriend 109 +2
100. Dairy 106 +26

Including Retweets

If we include retweets, here are the top ten things given up this year. It’s somewhat different:

Rank Word Count Difference from non-retweet rank
1. School 38,532 0
2. College 17,615 +9
3. F***boys 6,461 +9
4. Chocolate 5,127 -2
5. Twitter 5,074 -2
6. Alcohol 4,427 -2
7. Social networking 3,968 -2
8. Swearing 3,534 -2
9. Obama 3,351 +61
10. You 2,940 +3
11. Soda 2,820 -4
12. Coffee 2,506 -2
13. Sweets 2,499 -5
14. Homework 2,456 +2
15. Fast food 2,356 -6

Second-Wave Social Media

Has Instagram peaked?

Instagram, Snapchat, Tumblr, Tinder, Vine, WhatsApp.

Fast Food

Chipotle passes McDonald’s this year. Chick Fil A passes Taco Bell, and Whataburger continues its rise.

McDonald's, Chiptole, Taco Bell, Chick Fil A, Dunkin Donuts, Whataburger, In N Out, Domino's, and KFC.

Snack Foods

Hot Cheetos are still on the move.

Hot Cheetos, popcorn, Doritos, potato chips, Cheetos

TV vs. Netflix

As TV declines, Netflix rises.

TV, Netflix

Categories

Rank Category Number of Tweets
1. food 30,148
2. school/work 10,819
3. technology 9,277
4. habits 8,057
5. smoking/drugs/alcohol 6,230
6. relationship 4,229
7. irony 2,978
8. sex 2,274
9. health/hygiene 1,601
10. religion 1,470
11. entertainment 1,069
12. weather 986
13. generic 834
14. shopping 685
15. sports 410
16. money 276
17. politics 216
18. clothes 174
19. celebrity 165
20. possessions 83

Media Coverage

The Lent Tracker received some media attention this year. In roughly chronological order:

  1. What is Lent and when does it start? (Bath Chronicle)
  2. Will millions of Christians give up Facebook and Twitter for Lent? (MarketWatch)
  3. Top things Twitter users are ‘giving up’ for Lent (AZ Central. It even has a video.)
  4. Chocolate or Facebook – what will you be giving up this Ash Wednesday for Lent? (Irish Central)
  5. 7 Ideas to Give Up For Lent (or just because) (North DelaWHERE Happening)
  6. Top 10 Things People Will Be Giving Up For Lent, According to Twitter (97.3 The Dawg)
  7. What To Give Up for Lent? Twitter Reveals Top 100 Ideas of 2015 (Christianity Today)
  8. Here’s What People On Twitter Say They’re Giving Up For Lent (Time)
  9. What do Twitter users say they’re giving up for Lent? (KWWL)
  10. The Alpha and Omega of Lent: 5 FAQs on Ash Wednesday (AL.com)
  11. Chocolate, smoking, fast food: What are you giving up for Lent? (New Orleans Times-Picayune)
  12. Here’s What People on Twitter Say They’re Giving Up For Lent (Ryot News + Action)
  13. When is Lent 2015 and what should I give up? (Lincolnshire Echo)
  14. What people are giving up for Lent, as told to Twitter (Washington Post. I actually spoke to this reporter.)
  15. School and chocolate top list of what Twitter users are giving up for Lent (Kansas City Star)

Track in Real Time What People Are Giving Up for Lent in 2015

Monday, February 16th, 2015

See the top 100 things people are giving up in 2015 for Lent on Twitter, continually updated until February 21, 2015. You can also use the Historical Lent Tracker to see trends since 2009, though 2015 is still in flux, so I wouldn’t draw any conclusions (except maybe relating to Hot Cheetos–I seriously don’t understand that one) until the end of the week.

As I write this post, with about 4,000 tweets analyzed, perennial favorites “alcohol,” “chocolate,” and “social networking” lead the list. Given winter weather conditions in the eastern U.S., I expect that snow- and winter-related tweets will be popular this year.

Look for the usual post-mortem on February 21, 2015.

Study of the Religious Landscape on Twitter

Saturday, January 17th, 2015

A recent study looks at the U.S. religious landscape on Twitter. The researchers analyzed nearly 100 million tweets across 250,000 Twitter accounts to identify similarities and differences among self-identified followers of Christianity, Atheism, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism. Christians comprise the largest number of accounts, at just over 200,000, and I’ll focus on them here.

A word cloud shows the most-relevant accounts to follow for each religion.

This word cloud shows the accounts that adherents to each religion are more likely to follow than people of other religions. Green is Christian, gray is atheist, orange is Jewish, pink is Muslim, yellow is Buddhist, and blue is Hindu. This figure is reproduced from the original paper.

According to the paper, here are the most-popular Twitter accounts that Christians tend to follow more than followers of other religions:

  1. RickWarren
  2. CSLewisDaily
  3. TimTebow
  4. JohnPiper
  5. PastorMark
  6. lecrae
  7. JoyceMeyer
  8. MaxLucado
  9. christomlin
  10. louiegiglio
  11. MattChandler74
  12. JohnCMaxwell
  13. AndyStanley
  14. BethMooreLPM
  15. karijobe

(I’m estimating from the above word cloud, so the exact order may be off.)

And, again according to the paper, here are the words that Christians most-commonly use in tweets compared to followers of other religions–in other words, these words serve as statistical markers of Christianity: if you use them a lot, you’re probably a Christian or hang out with Christians.

  1. Jesus
  2. Christ
  3. God
  4. Church
  5. Lord
  6. Christian
  7. Bible
  8. Prayer
  9. Pray
  10. Worship
  11. Grace
  12. Blessed
  13. Faith
  14. Praise
  15. Pastor

(Again, I’m eyeballing the order from the word cloud included in the paper.)

Most-popular Christian leaders on Twitter?

In March 2014, I wondered if it would be possible to identify and cluster the most-popular “Christian” Twitter accounts. Starting with a list of 100 Christian leaders on Twitter, I wrote a program to work through their friend lists (and then the friends of those friends, and so on), seeing who Christian leaders most tended to follow. After crunching the numbers for 13,316 users, I took the top 200 (using a PageRank algorithm) you see below.

The list contains 149 men, 23 women (by my count, all but nine–Christine Caine, Joyce Meyer, Bobbie Houston, Beth Moore, Lysa TerKeurst, Jen Hatmaker, Ann Voskamp, Sheila Walsh, and Anne Lamott–are artists or wives of prominent Christian men; the remainder are speakers or writers), 22 organizations, and 6 quote accounts (two for C.S. Lewis and one each for Tim Keller, A.W. Tozer, Charles Spurgeon, and Henri Nouwen).

Originally I wanted to cluster them (pastors, artists, etc.), but the math didn’t produce strong clusters except to identify the spam accounts (most of them spouting random Bible verses).

Here are the top 200 “Christian Twitterati” in March 2014, along with their descriptions as they appeared at that time.

Rank Account Name Type Description (March 2014)
1. RickWarren Rick Warren male No socks. Loves Jesus & people.Mentors young leaders. Helps the poor, sick & lost thru P.E.A.C.E. Plan. Serves Saddleback. Encourages pastors. Wrote some books
2. louiegiglio Louie Giglio male Happy to be a door holder.
3. MattChandler74 Matt Chandler male Grace addict, husband to @laurenchandler, father of three, Lead Pastor @villagechurchtx, President @Acts29 Church Planting Network
4. joelhouston Joel Timothy Houston male Gracious fury, written in my saviours scars; Mercy Mercy, now engraved upon my heart. ZION – 26 • 2 • 13
5. shelleygiglio shelley giglio female part of the 268generation…
6. lecrae Lecrae male Booking: Mike infocmg@wmeentertainment.com Larry larryshields@theagencygroup.com
7. timkellernyc Timothy Keller male This is Timothy Keller. Sometimes my son and others post here as well. Founder of Redeemer Presbyterian Church and City to City. Husband to Kathy.
8. BrianCHouston Brian Houston male My wife and I are pastors and founders of a church called Hillsong. We are pretty passionate about our family, the Church, & helping people any way we can!
9. DarleneZschech Darlene Zschech female Married 2 Mark, Mum 2 Amy& Andrew, Chloe & Zoe, Grammie 2 Ava Pearl, Roman Emmanuel & Ruthie Feather,committed 2 serving Christ & worshipping Him with all I am.
10. christynockels Christy Nockels female Wife! Mother, singer, poet, songwriter
11. ChristineCaine Christine Caine female Follower of Jesus Christ.
12. CTmagazine Christianity Today organization Christianity Today is the source for those eager to engage the world for Christ and curious about the people, events, and trends shaping the church and culture.
13. CSLewisDaily C. S. Lewis quotes C. S. Lewis Quotes – Everyday
14. christomlin Chris Tomlin male husband, father, songwriter
15. MaxLucado Max Lucado male i played tuba in the High School marching band. been trying to stay in step with the music ever since.
16. drmoore Russell Moore male President, Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission
17. PastorMark Mark Driscoll male A nobody trying to tell everybody about Somebody.
18. edstetzer Ed Stetzer male Christian, hubby, #DadOf3Girls, pres of @LifeWayResearch, missiologist, @GoGraceChurch pastor. Too loud. Fast talker. Sry I can’t read/reply to all msgs & DMs.
19. passion268 Passion Conferences organization A student movement inspiring a generation to live for what matters most. [Isa. 26:8]
20. bradlomenick Brad Lomenick male leading the charge on CATALYST (@CatalystLeader), a movement of young leaders
21. craiggroeschel Craig Groeschel male Husband, Dad, Pastor of LifeChurch.tv
22. mattmahermusic Matt Maher male newfoundland to phoenix to nashville to ________
23. AndyStanley AndyStanley male Do more. Give more. Be Rich.
24. crowdermusic David Crowder male
25. matt_redman Matt Redman male Husband, Father, Songwriter
26. israelhoughton israelhoughton male Husband, Father, Friend of God.
27. bubbawatson bubba watson male Christian. Husband. Daddy. Pro Golfer. Check out BubbaGolf on iTunes! #bubbagolf #urwelcome
28. judahsmith Judah Smith male Lead Pastor at @thecitychurch, husband, father, and golfer. http://t.co/2xyMToSx6q
29. BillHybels Bill Hybels male Sr. Pastor of Willow Creek, convener of The Global Leadership Summit, passionate about the local church, author, speaker, sailor, and grandfather to Henry & Mac
30. reuben_morgan Reuben Morgan male writer+believer. thankful to be here now on a mission with people I love
31. JohnPiper John Piper male Founder-Teacher, Desiring God, Chancellor, BCS. Spreading a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ.
32. carllentzNYC carl lentz male HILLSONGNYC..if you don’t know, now you know…
33. JoyceMeyer Joyce Meyer female Sharing Christ – Loving People
34. jdgreear J.D. Greear male Lead Pastor of the Summit Church. Husband to Veronica, dad of Kharis, Allie, Ryah and Adon. Author of ‘Gospel.’ Not ‘the’ gospel, but a book about it. Rom 1:16.
35. kpstanfill Kristian Stanfill male #Passion2014 // Atlanta Jan 17-18 // Houston Feb 14-15 // two cities…one heartbeat.
36. bobbiehouston Bobbie Houston female Wife of Brian, mum of Joel/Esther/Ben/Luc/Laura/Pete, Grammie of Sav, Lexi,Bailey, Willow,Jack,ZIon. Grateful follower of Christ!
37. stevenfurtick Steven Furtick male Pastor of Elevation Church. New book – CRASH THE CHATTERBOX – now available
38. donaldmiller Donald Miller male Founder of StoryBrand, a process that helps companies speak clearly to their customers. Husband to @queenboots.
39. Jentezen Jentezen Franklin male
40. DailyKeller Tim Keller Wisdom quotes Fan Promo Site for Tim Keller @timkellernyc. Tweeting all things Keller and Gospel related – Books, Quotes, News, Blogs, Updates, and Kindle Deals Daily.
41. LisaBevere Lisa Bevere female A woman w/a weapon who wants to be sure every girl has a sword. Author-Advocate & Speaker. Wife of John Bevere-mother of 4 sons-Gmama of 2+.
42. BethMooreLPM Beth Moore female Crazy about Jesus. Saved my life. Want to see people know Him and love Him.
43. nickygumbel Nicky Gumbel male Husband of @pippagumbel, Vicar of @htbchurch & pioneer of @alphacourse. Pippa & I write a daily Bible commentary http://t.co/y7xmCjzhta #BiOY #Alpha #TryAlpha
44. davidnasser David Nasser male Husband,father, author, speaker, pastor…
45. darrinpatrick Darrin Patrick male Son, Husband, Father, Pastor, Chaplain to the St Louis Cardinals – Author of The Dude’s Guide to Manhood
46. TGC The Gospel Coalition organization TGC exists to promote gospel-centered ministry for the next generation.
47. LigonDuncan Ligon Duncan male Chancellor/CEO of the Reformed Theological Seminary system @ReformTheoSem and John E. Richards Professor of Systematic and Historical Theology
48. JohnCMaxwell John C Maxwell male Bestselling author & speaker on leadership. Christian. Blogger. Trainer. Coach. Assisted by Stephanie Wetzel (SW).
49. DaveRamsey Dave Ramsey male New York Times best-selling author and host of The Dave Ramsey Show. Follow the rest of my team at @RamseyShow, @DaveRamseyLIVE, and @EntreLeadership
50. michaelwsmith Michael W. Smith male New single YOU WON’T LET GO now available EVERYWHERE! From the new Michael W. Smith album, SOVEREIGN available everywhere May 13, 2014!
51. HarrisJosh Joshua Harris male Pastor @Covenantlife. In love with Shannon. Three awesome kids. Learning to be a disciple of Jesus day by day. Written some books.
52. TimTebow Tim Tebow male Blessed
53. TripLee116 Trip Lee male Rapper, Author. Living by faith in a good God. The Good Life Album and Book are in stores now
54. Chris_Hodges Chris Hodges male Follower of Jesus, husband, dad, senior pastor of Church of the Highlands, author of Fresh Air.
55. rayortlund Ray Ortlund male
56. greglaurie Greg Laurie male Pastor and Evangelist :: Knowing God and Making Him Known :: Maintained by Pastor Greg and the Harvest Web Team
57. perrynoble Perry Noble male Senior Pastor of @NewSpring. Author of Unleash! and Overwhelmed.
58. EdYoung Ed Young male I’m Ed Young, husband, father of four and the senior pastor of Fellowship Church, located in Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX; Miami, FL; Columbia, SC; and London, England.
59. PaulTripp Paul David Tripp male Pastor. Author. Conference Speaker. Connecting the transforming power of Jesus Christ to everyday life.
60. MarkBatterson Mark Batterson male Lead Pastor, National Community Church in Washington DC. Author, The Circle Maker, All In, In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day, Wild Goose Chase, Soulprint…
61. hillsongunited Hillsong United organization White Album avalaible for pre purchase – http://t.co/tOkODeCkb7
62. karijobe Kari Jobe female Worshipper. Girly-girl. Longboard skateboard-er. World traveller. Random tweeter. Songwriter. I love life and Jesus. MAJESTIC CD/DVD will release March 25!
63. BishopJakes TD Jakes male Official Twitter for Bishop T. D. Jakes
64. albertmohler albertmohler male President @sbts; author; broadcaster; theologian
65. TozerAW A W Tozer quotes Inspiring, encouraging and challenging quotes from the new works of AW Tozer–including My Daily Pursuit–and a few of his classic quotes.
66. CSLewisU C. S. Lewis quotes Daily Thoughts and ideas from CS Lewis
67. JudWilhite Jud Wilhite male Senior Pastor at @centralonline. Married to @Lori_Wilhite with 2 kids. New York Times Best-Selling author. Espresso addict & Dallas Cowboys fan.
68. PriscillaShirer Priscilla Shirer female Just a girl….with a Sword
69. jamesmacdonald James MacDonald male Revelation 1:2 – For the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ
70. ScottyWardSmith Scotty Smith male Founding Pastor of Christ Community Church. Husband, dad, granddad, lover of the gospel, photographer, fisherman, and so blessed
71. dinorizzo Dino Rizzo male Husband to DeLynn, father to three awesome kids, and author of the book Servolution.
72. plattdavid David Platt male Husband to Heather. Dad to Caleb, Joshua, Mara Ruth, & Isaiah. Pastor of The Church at Brook Hills.
73. JosephPrince Joseph Prince male It’s my passion to share God’s grace radically & see lives gloriously transformed!
74. between2worlds BetweenTwoWorlds male Justin Taylor: Christian, husband, father, elder, acquisitions editor, blogger
75. desiringgod Desiring God organization We want people everywhere to understand and embrace the truth that *God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him*
76. MarkDever Mark Dever male
77. CJMahaney C.J. Mahaney male Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love; Here’s my heart, O take and seal it, Seal it for Thy courts above.
78. RevKevDeYoung Kevin DeYoung male Senior Pastor, University Reformed Church. Married to Trisha. Five children. Christian.
79. ThabitiAnyabwil Thabiti Anyabwile male Foreknown, predestined, called, justified, glorified. Hubby to Kristie, daddy to 3, Pastor of FBC, satisfied in Christ.
80. GabeLyons Gabe Lyons male
81. JeffersonBethke Jefferson Bethke male I like to drink coffee, create stuff, & sleep. Husband to @alyssajoybethke & Co-Founder of @clarocandles. Author of this — http://t.co/wLOFZhkjh1
82. jackngraham Jack Graham male Husband to Deb. Dad to Jason, Kelly, Josh. Dad in love 2 Toby, Kaytie. Grandad to Ian, Dylan, Levi. Pastor Prestonwood.
83. bobgoff Bob Goff male Author of Love Does. President and Founder, Restore International
84. CatalystLeader Catalyst organization A Convergence of Next Generation Leaders
85. KayWarren1 Kay Warren female Mom of 3,Grammy of 5, pastor’s wife, speaker, author,& advocate for those living with HIV, mental illness & 4 orphans. Determined 2 say yes to God, 2 choose joy
86. TonyDungy Tony Dungy male Husband to @LaurenDungy, father of nine, author (http://t.co/mOupp6iBLw), retired NFL coach, National Spokesman for @AllProDad. Live by Mark 8:36
87. mandisaofficial Mandisa female Jesus-follower. Contemporary Christian recording artist. Author. American Idol Season 5 finalist. Picture of health wrapped in a not-so-perfect tent…for now!
88. macpowell Mac Powell male Lead Singer of Third Day. Solo Country Project now available!
89. JohnBevere John Bevere male Husband of Lisa. Father to Addison & Juli, Austin, Alec, & Arden + G-Daddy to Asher & Baby Sophia! Author & Ambassador of Jesus Christ.
90. pwilson Pete Wilson male Pastor of @crosspoint_tv in Nashville, author of #LetHopeIn, husband, and father of 3 boys.
91. richwilkersonjr Rich Wilkerson Jr. male Married to the greatest lady in the world. Young adult pastor of The Vous (http://t.co/P23VgE2sqM)
92. laurenchandler Lauren Chandler female wife to matt. mother to audrey, reid + norah. lover of God. singer of songs. writer of stuff.
93. AndyMineo Andy Mineo male -|| Artist | Unashamed | #116 | Never Land EP & Heroes For Sale out now! ||- Booking (WME): http://t.co/0B2UdfwgWx
94. Spurgeon_ Charles Spurgeon quotes
95. theResurgence Resurgence organization Resurgence serves the church on mission by creating tools, training believers & connecting leaders. Sign up for our Resurgence conference http://t.co/A8kt1gsbwW
96. RealJohnGray John Gray male Aventer’s husband. John IV and Theory’s dad. Alice’s son. God’s Servant. Associate Teaching Pastor, Lakewood Church.
97. stovallweems Stovall Weems male
98. drtonyevans Tony Evans male Serving my Savior and my King. #KingdomMan #KingdomAgenda
99. JustinHolcomb Justin Holcomb male Episcopal priest, professor, & author
100. MatthewBarnett Matthew Barnett male Pastor of The Dream Center & Angelus Temple. Pre-order my new book “God’s Dream For You” -http://t.co/tCqS3DA2wT – Follow me on Instagram http://t.co/8SovoK95h3
101. TheA21Campaign The A21 Campaign organization We abolish human trafficking in the 21st century.
102. kevingerald Kevin Gerald male Leader, wife-lover, Jesus follower. http://t.co/sYxprXXCKS
103. randyalcorn Randy Alcorn male Author of over forty books, founder of Eternal Perspective Ministries; love Jesus, my wife Nanci, daughters, sons and five grandsons!
104. collinhansen Collin Hansen male Editorial Director for The Gospel Coalition, Author of ‘A God-Sized Vision’ and ‘Young, Restless, Reformed’
105. jonathanfalwell Jonathan Falwell male Pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, VA.
106. RealEricGeiger Eric Geiger male Vice President LifeWay Christian Resources. I follow Jesus and serve His Church, love my wife and kids, and want to play more basketball.
107. enditmovement ❌ END IT organization Shine A Light on Slavery.
108. kirkfranklin Kirk Franklin male The Official Kirk Franklin
109. NatalieGrant Natalie Grant female Jesus girl. Family girl. Singer girl. Freedom fighter.
110. PastorTullian Tullian Tchividjian male Pastor of @coralridgepc. Founder of @liberatenet. Grandson of @BillyGraham. Learning everyday that Jesus + Nothing = Everything.
111. PhilCooke Phil Cooke male Helping churches & nonprofits not suck at the media. http://t.co/EDnq7j8qXD http://t.co/Z4XZwHOgMk Recent books: One Big Thing & Unique
112. RaviZacharias Ravi Zacharias male Founder & President of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries. Atlanta | Worldwide. Helping Thinkers Believe & Believers Think. Staff assists with tweets.
113. LysaTerKeurst Lysa TerKeurst female I’ve had a crush on Art for 20 years. We love 5 kids like crazy. I adore my team at Proverbs31ministries. I wrote Made to Crave, Unglued, and a few others.
114. PsRobertMorris Robert Morris male Official Twitter for Robert Morris, Senior Pastor of @GatewayPeople, and the author of The Blessed Life and The Blessed Church. http://t.co/WsY79Qngh8
115. israelnewbreed israelnewbreed organization
116. caseytreat Casey Treat male Senior Pastor @CFCSeattle, husband, father, friend, & author. Romans 12:2 changed my life & can change yours too.
117. rick_bezet Rick Bezet male Husband to Michelle, Dad to Hunter/Hailee/Tanner/Grace! Pastor to New Life Church in AR! My dog hates me.
118. JenHatmaker JenHatmaker female Wife, mama of 5 (3 the old fashioned way…2 from Ethiopia), writer, speaker, foodie, Wii Just Dance Champion, gardener, hash tag abuser, Jesus girl.
119. JLin7 Jeremy Lin male to know Him is to want to know Him more
120. BillyGraham Billy Graham male Official Twitter page of Rev. Billy Graham. Account is run by @BGEA staff.
121. joechampion Joe Champion male Love Jesus, Love my family, Love my Church.
122. PastorSergio Sergio De La Mora male Pastor of the Cornerstone Church of San Diego, Father, Husband, Visionary, Author of The Heart Revolution.
123. realrobbell Rob Bell male
124. hillsonglive Hillsong LIVE organization The Official Hillsong LIVE Twitter. Our latest live album #GloriousRuins is now available! http://t.co/8M8uQwehgs
125. JoelOsteen Joel Osteen male Daily inspiration to help you live the life of victory and abundance that God intended for you. http://t.co/6apEukVPbT
126. _Matt_Carter Matt Carter male Lover of Jesus. Husband of an amazing woman. Father to 3 delightful children. Pastor of Preaching @ The Austin Stone. Author of The Real Win w/ Colt McCoy
127. MichaelHyatt Michael Hyatt male Author of the New York Times bestseller, Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World. Founder of http://t.co/UNZmxcFox9. Forbes Top 50 Social Media Influencer 2013
128. LeeStrobel Lee Strobel male Follower of Jesus. Husband, dad, grandfather. Author of 20+ books, including The Case for Christ & The Case for Faith. Professor at Houston Baptist University
129. bennyperez Benny Perez male Husband, Father, Lead Pastor of The Church LV. Join us for @DedicatedLV in Vegas June 25th-27th. Register at http://t.co/z89UxZQAkd
130. TroyGramling Troy Gramling male Husband, Father of 3, Lead #Pastor at @PotentialChurch.
131. Pontifex Pope Francis male Welcome to the official Twitter page of His Holiness Pope Francis
132. RealRomaDowney Roma Downey female Roma actress and producer of emmy nominated series The Bible seen by over 100 million people in USA and Son of God to be released Feb 28th 2014
133. bobbygwald Bobby Gruenewald male Pastor, Innovation Leader @ LifeChurch.tv. a founder @ http://t.co/QDlDdOyo. Passionate about my family, The Church, Leadership, Mobile Technology.
134. DarrenWhitehead Darren Whitehead male Husband to Brandy. Dad to Sydney, Scarlett & Violet. Aussie. Author of Rumors of God.
135. AnnVoskamp Ann Voskamp female Wife to the Farmer: Mama to 6 : Author of NYTimes Bestsellers: One Thousand Gifts … & … The Greatest Gift. Seeking to follow One alone.
136. IJM Intl Justice Mission organization Official International Justice Mission twitter securing rescue for victims of slavery & other violent forms of oppression. Tweeters: Austin/Tierney/Jaclyn
137. RevRunWisdom Rev Run male Words of wisdom non-stop.. Pls don’t be offended if I don’t reply or follow u, But I Love you!
138. DannyAkin Daniel Akin male
139. ahc Andy Crouch male Writer (Playing God, Culture Making) | Executive Editor (@CTmagazine) | Producer (@ct_city) | Dad
140. hillsong Hillsong Church organization Hillsong Church is all about loving God and people.
141. PastorChrisHill Chris Hill male Official Twitter for Pastor Chris Hill. Son, husband, father, friend, mentor, preacher & Senior Pastor of The Potter’s House Church of Denver.
142. JonAcuff Jon Acuff male New York Times Bestselling Author of Start/Speaker. Married to Jenny. Dad to L.E. and McRae.
143. ronniefloyd Ronnie Floyd male Senior Pastor of @CrossChurch, a multi campus faith family, the founder of @CCSchoolofMin. Passionate about preparing leaders for global Gospel advancement.
144. johnnymhunt Johnny Hunt male Pastor of FBC Woodstock since Dec. 1986. FORMER President of the Southern Baptist Convention
145. SheilaWalsh SheilaWalsh female Born in Scotland, now a US citizen, wife, mom of 1 boy and 3 pups. Overwhelmed by the fiery love and mercy of God, found it impossible to keep it to myself
146. Crossway Crossway organization Crossway is a not-for-profit publisher of Christian books, the ESV Bible, and gospel tracts. Tweets by @angelacheatham and @jameskinnard [at the time tweeted as @CrosswayBooks]
147. bilcornelius Bil Cornelius male Leader/founding pastor/speaker/author/entrepreneur I love Jesus, @jesicacornelius,my 3 kids, @bafchurch, & people.I could eat Mexican food 5 days a week.
148. 9MarksOnline 9Marks organization 9Marks exists to equip church leaders with a biblical vision and practical resources for displaying God’s glory to the nations through healthy churches.
149. RichWilkerson Rich Wilkerson male Pastor @TrinityMiami husband of 1 wife Robyn 4 sons 2 daughters 1 GrandDarling… Love God & Love Ppl
150. KerryShook Kerry Shook male Senior pastor of @WoodlandsChurch. Husband to the beautiful @ChristineShook. Dad to Ryan, Josh, Megan & Steven. NY Times Bestselling author.
151. gregsurratt Greg Surratt male Pastor – Seacoast Church
152. TommyTenney Tommy Tenney male Happy husband to the ever amazing @JeannieTenney • Father to 3 delightful daughters • Blessed with 4 grandchildren • Son of @TFTenney • Christ follower • Cajun
153. scotmcknight scotmcknight  male Professor @nseminary
154. DrHenryCloud Dr. Henry Cloud male Psychologist, Author, and Leadership Consultant. http://t.co/haDxnxImhX
155. mattfry Matt Fry male Lead Pastor C3 Church http://t.co/Pr8QOnjHgq ARC Lead Team http://t.co/wtA6HwBOFi
156. pastoremase Eric Mason male Jesus follower, Husband of @ImmNehe, Father, Pastor @epiphfellowship Author of #ManhoodRestored
157. bibleseries The Bible’ Series organization The Bible’ is an epic journey from Genesis through Revelation produced by Roma Downey & Mark Burnett. Emmy nominated & seen by 100 million people & counting!
158. tommybarnett Tommy Barnett male Senior Pastor, Phoenix First Assembly in Phoenix (http://t.co/jUYIccxdTd), Arizona; co-founder of the LA Dream Center and NY Dream Center
159. ericmetaxas Eric Metaxas male is the author of BONHOEFFER: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy and AMAZING GRACE: William Wilberforce & the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery.
160. FirstLadyJakes Serita Jakes female Official Twitter for First Lady Serita Jakes
161. erwinmcmanus Erwin McManus male traveling the universe with my band of outsiders in search of beauty, wonder, and a good story.
162. johnortberg John Ortberg male Author Speaker Pastor
163. Fred_Buechner Frederick Buechner male Christian theologian and author of 36 books, including fiction, autobiography, essays, sermons, quotes, and other nonfiction.
164. hillsongNYC Hillsong NYC organization The best way to stay in touch with what’s happening in Hillsong NYC! Also, check out – http://t.co/3WbMj7pyX8 and http://t.co/X7ytKmHdiE
165. jrvassar JR Vassar male Christ follower, Husband, Father, Pastor.
166. ANNELAMOTT ANNE LAMOTT female Author – Bird by Bird, Traveling Mercies, Some Assembly Required, Help Thanks Wow. Mom, Nana, activist; elder at St. Andrew Prez–services at 11:00.
167. RedeemerNYC Redeemer Pres NYC organization
168. RichStearns Rich Stearns male President of World Vision USA, and author of The Hole in Our Gospel and Unfinished: Believing Is Only the Beginning (April, 2013)
169. ihoughton Israel Houghton male Husband, Father,Friend of God
170. LarryOsborne Larry Osborne male Pastor, Author – North Coast Church, Vista CA Blog:http://t.co/cybdjDrxo6
171. PastorChrisSeay Chris Seay male Pastor of Ecclesia Houston, President of Ecclesia Bible Society/Translator of The Voice ( a beautiful and faithful translation of scriptures), Husband and Dad
172. charitywater charity: water organization We’re an NYC-based charity working in 20 developing countries around the world, bringing clean water to people in need.
173. Michael_Card Michael Card male Christian Author, Singer/ Songwriter. Written 23 books and 30 albums Well known and loved through songs like El Shaddai, Immanuel and Come Lift Up Your Sorrows
174. CharlesJenkins7 Charles Jenkins male I laugh I serve I create I give
175. dancathy Dan T. Cathy male CEO and President of Chick-fil-A, but I like to say I’m in Customer Service
176. kimwalkersmith Kim Walker-Smith female I love Jesus, Skyler (my knight-in-shining-armor), Wyatt (my wildly handsome son), Duke & Stella (my cuddly dogs), and chocolate. In that order.
177. RELEVANT RELEVANT Magazine organization The leading magazine on faith, culture & intentional living. Covering what’s relevant to your life—in print, iPad & daily online. (Founded by @CameronStrang.)
178. tonymorganlive Tony Morgan male I help leaders and organizations get unstuck.
179. therealtobymac TobyMac male I got my eye on it!!
180. Clayton_king Clayton King male Founder & President of Crossroads Ministries, Teaching Pastor @ Newspring Church, Campus Pastor @ Liberty University, Author for Lifeway & Baker Pub
181. JeanneMayo Jeanne Mayo female Wife + Mom + Nana + Coach + Author + Speaker + Cadre + Atlanta Leadership College + 212 Director = Love to Meet You!! #follow #StuMin @YLCoach
182. jaredcwilson jaredcwilson male Husband, father, pastor, author. My latest book STORYTELLING GOD available now from Crossway.
183. JonTyson Jon Tyson male Trinity Grace Church : City Collective : City Renewal. Planting in Midtown Manhattan. Pursuing the way of Jesus : Joining God in the renewal of all things.
184. brandonheath Brandon Heath male Don’t miss Brandon on #HitsDeepTour and check out his album Blue Mountain on iTunes http://t.co/WnmvSIeP3E
185. jamiemunson Jamie Munson male CoPresident of @Storyville Coffee, Writer at http://t.co/IDic6PFedy, Author of 2 Books – Authority and Money
186. BurkParsons Burk Parsons male I’m not my own but belong to Jesus Christ whom I trust, follow, and preach as an ordinary pastor, dad, and husband making disciples of nations for God’s glory.
187. philwickham Phil Wickham male The Ascension now available on iTunes! http://t.co/fMqmAHW5bS
188. HenriNouwen Henri Nouwen quotes Henri Nouwen – author, theologian, mentor, pastor, activist, Dutch priest, and above all – beloved.
189. MikeFoster Mike Foster male Lover of imperfectionists. Founder of @POTSC. Author of Freeway: A Not-So-Perfect Guide To Freedom. I believe in love, God and you.
190. cameronstrang Cameron Strang male Founder of @RELEVANT, daddy of Cohen, follower of Jesus, publisher, podcaster, fan of the Magic & Gators. But not in that order.
191. bloodwater Blood:Water organization Partnering with Africa to end the HIV/AIDS & water crises
192. jonforeman Jon Foreman male I play music in bands called switchfoot, and fiction family. I am grateful to be alive.
193. JonathanMerritt Jonathan Merritt male Senior Columnist, Religion News Service @RNS; Author of A Faith of Our Own (2012) and Jesus is Better Than You Imagined (2014)
194. loswhit Carlos Whittaker male Author of Moment Maker :: Hater of Meatloaf :: Lover of Familia
195. DanKimball Dan Kimball male on staff at Vintage Faith Church, author of They Like Jesus But Not The Church
196. stevekmccoy Steve K. McCoy male I’ve heard and I believe. I study and I preach. I imagine and I create. I am loved and I love.
197. challies challies male Owner and proprietor of http://t.co/UVIRyi9y.
198. lovedoes Love Does organization
199. williebosshog Willie Robertson male President of Duck and Buck Commander. Personality on both, Duck Dynasty and Buck Commander Protected by Under Armour.
200. coltondixon Colton Dixon male love God. love music. love people

Via MIT Technology Review.