Thursday 10 March 2011

Church & Technology?!

Is your church embracing technology? Why should your church embrace technology?

In a world where technology is relied on so much and everyone is using some sort of technology to communicate why should the church be left behind?

How many of you have mobiles, laptops and iphones for example? Also would you be as efficient without them?

Scripture tells us that "every eye shall see" and that we should strive to spread the Word of God in every way possible. So why leave out the rest of technology?

By no means as I am saying that every church should spend thousands on getting things set up now and it is the vision of every church but there are some churches out there which really should progress in this field.

If one person comes to God through this medium is that not a huge victory? When a Mr Graham stood up with people around him and announced that one day he would preach to a full stadium who there would have taken him seriously and gone on to thought that he would change the lives of millions of people and millions of people have seen/heard him preach on the internet!

Is it all well and good saying "I have not the face for broadcasting" or things along that line but if someone had approached you years ago before you started in this ministry you are in now and said "this is where you will be and what you will be doing" would you have thought twice and laughed about it? Look where you are now!

Jesus told his disciple to "step out the boat in Faith" but do we REALLY do this on a daily basis?

Do we shoot for the stars when we have visions on growth within the church and Gods kingdom?

If someone comes to you with a vision of anything within your church first thing you must not do is laugh at them and jump on their message. God uses everyone to deliver His word regardless of any restrictions we see in this world!

I do feel that every church should have a website. It does not have to be something that is all singing and dancing and cost the earth to make. Simple, clean, precise is the best platform to start on and then when the Lord speaks to you the progress it then do so!

If you clutter your site with too much information or make it too large then the visitors will lose track of where they are. If you try to include too much information then they can lose interest in what they are reading or believe they have read enough and not need to visit the church. Make your website a "taster" of what your church is about.. You don’t see food shops giving you a full run down to the taste and texture of all the food and a life story of it all.

Just look at the recent Iphone app that the ....... made. Some of us, me included, don’t really see how confessional can be done over a phone app and believe that it is done only by speaking with God himself. There is however another way to looking at this! Will people who are not followers of Christ or some who are on the boundary use this and get closer? We need to embrace technology for all aspects of our church, church walk and our own personal walk with God.

If we are to close our eyes to methods of getting the message of Jesus to people then we are placing limits on the work of the Holy Spirit within us and the church..

Drifting slightly back to us and "I don’t have a face for this..." comments I face earlier. We are all made in the image of God and by saying we are not willing to do something because of our own image/confidence issues then are we not limiting the amount of work God can do with us?

You see that we do need to bring technology into the church as we are a 24/7 on the go society and with people going away and views who randomly stumble onto your site may become enthused and if you have sermon downloading and/or online videos they can watch you are stretching out the arms of the Lord to cover so many people!

Church is not all about us and the people just outside our door and whilst we know there are churches everywhere we still need to bring our message to everyone as our message may be what someone 100 or 1000 miles away may need to bring them to Christ. Does it really matter if that person who comes to Christ and is saved does not attend your church but watches avidly to your online sermons?

Remember church leaders.. It is not about YOU but growing Gods kingdom and his message..

I shall leave this thought with you...

Are you willing to step in Faith and progress Gods kingdom by embracing every technological opportunity there is??

Peace be with you all!