Do you like change?
How you answer that question says a lot about the type of person you are. Not “good or bad”, because there are many people in both camps who are good and bad! But, how you respond to change will say a lot about how you live life.
Change is inevitable. Biologically, if you are not changing, you’re … dead. Every living organism changes. So, if you breathe, then you change.
Some change can be overwhelming. Marty, the assistant pastor, wrote on his blog recently about technology. He told the story of a conversation he had with a man who didn’t understand why he couldn’t still buy a television like the one he grew up with (tubes, curved front, etc.).
I’m a pastor, and so a lot of my life experiences come from within the church. One thing I have found over the years, is that the Church is not a big fan of change. Most churches are usually about five to ten years behind technology (some would argue even more behind than that!). Often, when technological change is suggested within a church environment, the “nay-sayers” turn to the “why can’t we just ‘preach Jesus’?” argument. Why are we trying to stay “on top of all this nonsense?”
There was a time when I believed that we should be current with culture. That if we were going to reach a culture with the message of God’s amazing love, we needed to understand and relate to them. I’ve moved on from that somewhat. I now lean more to the idea that rather than be current with the culture around me, I am called to lead the change in culture. And not just me. The Church is called to take a leadership role within cultural change.
This brings me back to technology. Some people have observed that Bikers’ Church is fairly advanced technologically for being a “small size” church. We have both a video & audio podcast of our all our sermons available online. We have a daily devotional that is sent via email to more than three times the number of people who attend our services. I blog, I tweet, I facebook. I am constantly researching the latest media trends to see if (and how) they would fit into a spiritual context.
Over the next few days, I’m going to take some time to explain why (and how) we use some of these technologies. My hope is that others who read this will take up some of these things and begin to utilize them within their church context as well. (HINT: this would be a good week to forward the link for this blog to your pastor or church leadership).
I’m no expert in this stuff. Almost everything I’ve learned, has been self-taught. I read other blogs about technology in hopes of gleaning a few things. I’m sure there are others who are much more educated in this area, and perhaps a few will offer their thoughts via the comments.
So, check back tomorrow for the first installment.
