Last week I wrote my annual listing of The Top 25 Blogs Christians Need To Be Reading In 2013. Because of its incredible response, I am now posting my follow-up, The Top 30 Christian Leaders You Should Be Following On Twitter In 2013.
The challenge of this post is I could have literally composed a list of 100+ individuals. Therefore, I narrowed my criteria down to a list of 10 traits I looked for:
- If mentioned in The Top 25 Blogs, you were excluded. I want to point you to as many great Christian leaders as possible.
- If you only provide the “Quote of the Day” you were omitted. Quotes are helpful but can be obtained from multiple sources.
- Do you point me to other great blog posts, writers, or Christian leaders? In other words, are you generous with information?
- Do you challenge me?
- Do you make me look at issues through a different lens?
- Do you provide great tools and resources?
- Do you break news?
- Are you relevant?
- Do you provide solutions?
- Do you answer questions I am currently asking as a leader?
On a side note, it would be easy to name people like Rick Warren, Bill Hybels, Andy Stanley, Brian Houston, or Craig Groeschel. I wanted to spotlight other people as well.
With that as my criteria, the following are The Top 30 Christian Leaders You Should Be Following On Twitter In 2013 listed in alphabetical order:
- @_PaulAlexander – Paul is the Executive Pastor at Sun Valley Community Church in Arizona. Along with www.TonyMorganLive.com, his Leadership Coaching Network is something every Christian leader should be a part of. You can read more about it by clicking here.
- @RichBirch – Liquid Church, with 4 locations in NY/NJ, is one of the funnest, most creative churches in America. Rich, who serves at Operations Pastor, along with Senior Pastor Tim Lucas lead what is soon to be one of America’s most reknown churches.
- @MichaelCatt – Pastor Catt leads the great Sherwood Baptist Church which among other items gave us the movies Fireproof and Courageous.
- @RobCizek – This Executive Pastor of Northshore Christian Church in the Seattle area is the best networker and facilitator of information that I have read.
- @dbonleadership – Dan Black is one of my favorite leadership bloggers and one of the kindest people you can follow.
- @HerbertCooper – Pastor Cooper leads the incredible People’s Church in Oklahoma City and is one of America’s leading voices on multi-cultural, multi-generational ministry.
- @RonEdmondson – The pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church has planted two churches. But this social media giant is most passionate about helping pastors and ministry leaders think through leadership, strategy and life.
- @mafeinberg – Margaret Feinberg was recently named one of the 30 Voices who will help lead the church in the next decade by Charisma magazine and one of the ’40 Under 40’ who will shape Christian publishing by Christian Retailing magazine.
- @LouieGiglio, @ShelleyGiglio, and @ChrisTomlin – If you missed the Passion 2013 Conference this past week in Atlanta, watch the video above to see what 60,000 students worshipping Jesus looks like. Passion is the greatest movement of God in this country since Promise Keepers in the mid-90s. For additional sites connected to these three leaders of the Passion movement, click @passion268, and @PassionCity.
- @CaseyGraham and @mlukaszewski – Casey and Michael lead The Rocket Company, the most effective organization I know in helping pastors preach more effectively and increase weekly giving.
- @JeffHenderson – Jeff is the Campus Pastor of the Gwinnett Campus of North Point Ministries and one of the Christianity’s great communicators.
- @Hope – Founded by Shaun King (who you should also follow), www.HopeMob.org is is exactly what it sounds like – a mob of people bringing hope. Just as Flash Mobs dance and bring spontaneous joy and laughter, HopeMob will bring caring strangers together to create sudden, yet organized relief and hope all over the world!
- @MichaelHyatt – The former Chairman of Thomas Nelson Publishers and author of Platforms is an uber-blogger and helps people live and lead on purpose.
- @DavidKinnaman – Dave is president of The Barna Group and author of the books unChristian and You Lost Me.
- @JosephLalonde – Joseph is currently serving on the leadership staff for E3 (formerly HYM, Haven Youth Ministry), the youth group of Oakcrest Church of God. If you write good stuff, count on a RT!
- @JustinLathrop – When Justin isn’t being the Director of Strategic Relations for the Assembly of God, or the Executive Pastor of Strategic Development for The Oaks Fellowship, or the Co-Founder of www.MinistryCoach.tv, he is a great guy to follow on Twitter.
- @ThomasMcDaniels – Senior Pastor of LifeBridge Christian Center in Longview, Texas is arguably the kindest Christian I’ve met on the internet. No one encourages me more.
- @LindseyNobles – One of the most influential NextGen female Christian leaders, Lindsey is Director of Community for Project7 which makes products that fund areas of need across the globe.
@CPonder7 and @SamSteelePonder – Newlyweds Minnesota Vikings QB Christian Ponder and ESPN College Gameday host Samantha Ponder are a beautiful picture of what a high-profile, young Christian couple looks like.- @PlattDavid – David Platt is the Senior Pastor of The Church at Brook Hills and author of Radical.
- @IkeReighard – Trust me, no one knows more about church growth and community ministry than the delightful pastor of Piedmont Church in Marietta, GA.
- @MarkRicht – There is no man I admire more than the head football coach of the Georgia Bulldogs. Well, except maybe @TonyDungy who you should also follow.
- @Efrem Smith – Efrem is the Superintendent of the Pacific Southwest Conference of the Evangelical Covenant Church. In this role he provides leadership to around 160 churches and other ministry initiatives in California, Arizona, Hawaii, Nevada, and Utah. He is also an Itinerant Speaker with Kingdom Building Ministries and is the author of the books, Raising-up Young Heroes and The Hip Hop Church.
- @Stacy_Spencer – Pastor Spencer leads New Direction Church in Memphis, TN. This church was recognized as America’s fastest growing church in 2012.
- @TimTebow – The New York Jets and NFL scouts don’t appreciate Tebow but everyone else does.
- @BishopWSThomas – The incredible Bishop of New Psalmist Baptist Church in Baltimore and the Presiding Prelate of the Kingdom Association of Covenant Pastors.
- @CarrieUnderwood – With over 1.1 million followers, this country music star displayed her Christian influence by lending her voice to the Passion 2013 event to abolish global slavery. Check out this post and picture – “We’re in it to end it!
#enditmovement http://enditmovement.com pic.twitter.com/GfyVeP0t“ - @BubbaWatson – The 2012 Masters champion is a pro athlete everyone should be rootiong for.
- @DangeRussWilson – Russell Wilson is the incredible rookie quarterback of the playoff-bound Seattle Seahawks and one of the most inspirational young leaders you can follow.
@AfshinZiafat – This former Muslim is the incredible Lead Pastor of Providence Church in Frisco, TX. He is absolutely one of the greatest communicators you will ever hear. If you book speakers for conferences, sign him up TODAY!!!
The reality is that any list of great Christian leaders you should follow on Twitter will be woefully short. Who else would you add to the list?
Subscribe here so future posts can be directly to your Inbox. As a gift for doing so, I will also send you a FREE copy of my brand new eBook 455 Leadership Quotes: Lessons From 2012′s Top Christian Conference Speakers.