Being a pastor in our current era means having an ocean sized spectrum between the different generations in your ministry. On the younger end there are folks in their twenties who grew up with high-speed internet, video enabled smart phones, and their cars always had power everything along with high-powered air-conditioning. On the other side of that vast spectrum, is a group of people who started out in life with no indoor plumbing, rotary phones, glass bottles from the grocery store that were returned after use, and cars that had far less features than today’s standard automobile.
At the age of 51, I started off much further along technologically speaking than my grandparents generation. And I’ve tried very hard to stay current with modern technology. As fast as the tech world moves though it is almost impossible to keep up with it if that is not your career.
And then there’s the church. Many times in history the church has been very slow to move along with modernization. Now I’m not talking about moving along with new age doctrines. I’m referring to methods in which to communicate the message. I attended a mid-size church in a small town in Ohio as a boy. I remember when they began to use transparency projectors for the song lyrics as opposed to hymnals. Boy that drew some ire. And then the people producing those transparencies for the projector were so innovative as to use different fonts and even put a picture of nature in the background of the lyrics. There were definitely accusations of the antichrist at work! Innovation was rewarded with suspicion and accusation.
I played drums as a kid. I was invited to play with the praise team. There was a grand piano, an acoustic guitar, and now me on drums. I was told to play soft, don’t get too excited, and just keep a tempo. So that’s what I did. Now to a 15 year old drummer who grew up in the era of hard rock that was torture. But I honored the leaders and kept it down as soft as I was capable of playing. What happened? There were dear sweet saintly church ladies accusing me of bringing demon music into the church! Although we could count many more instances I think that most people would agree that the church is generally slow to adopt change. And that’s not all bad.
Introduce our day of amazing technology. Now there are some people using their internet, phones, and laptops to play computer games all day. Others are carousing on social media all day. And there are some who have been drawn into sin because our modern technology can bring terrible things right to your fingertips in total secrecy. So I believe we can have a valid concern that modern technology has a very big downside. And Jesus taught us to “cut off our hand” if that hand is leading us to sin. So if technology is hurting your faith, by all means you should get rid of it.
Now with all that being said, let’s talk about the upside. A few Sundays ago about ten minutes before the service, I had the thought of a picture I had seen many years ago on TV. That picture would have been helpful to a point in my message. I spoke with our tech team leader. Within eight seconds he had the exact picture pulled up on his phone. And a few seconds later it was ready to be put on our giant screens. Wow. Twenty years ago I would have had to travel to the library, search multitudes of books and magazines to find a picture, pay to make a photocopy of the picture, transfer the photocopy onto an overhead transparency, and then the picture would have been ready to show on a Sunday morning in a very low resolution. What took two to three hours then now took fifteen seconds.
There was a time in order to research for a message a preacher would have to own tons and tons of books. Greek & Hebrew dictionaries. Concordances. Lexicons. History books. Jewish culture books. Most preachers had enough theology books to fill their office and more. But now? All those books are available in a few clicks. What used to take 20 minutes to research a Greek word now takes less than 20 seconds. And then another click or two and we see that word completely explained and expounded upon. We can have amazing study time in a small fraction of the time it used to take.
And then there is global evangelism. On any given week I can preach all over the world sitting right in front of my laptop. I can use modern technology to bring a message to a house church, a pastor’s conference, or an evangelistic meeting on the other side of the world. I have been able to preach to tens of thousands of people just sitting at my desk. There have been thousands of recorded decisions for Christ, healings, and people being discipled.
One more thought. It has never been easier to invite people to church. A simple message on social media can reach thousands of people in a matter of minutes. Our team had about three to four hours in production of three different videos for our recent easter services. Those three videos were viewed thousands of times over. And we had others in our congregation make their own invitation videos and messages. Bottom line, with a few clicks of a button there were more than 30,000 invitations that went out for our easter services. When my wife and I were starting our church back in 2002 we didn’t have such technology. We literally went door to door to invite people to our church. We spent all our free time for one summer going door to door. We were able to knock on a few hundred doors over several months. Most of the time there was no one home. We were faithful and worked very hard. But what we did then pales in comparison to the reach we have available today through modern technology.
No matter what generation you are in, technology is here to stay. And I pray that as we are committed to reaching souls for Christ that we would find ways to use technology to the fullest potential for evangelism and discipleship that His Kingdom come; His will be done; on earth as it is in heaven. So how will you use technology in your life and ministry to further the cause of Christ and your life’s purpose?
Pastor Matt Nichols
