Overcoming Objections to Technology...

One Point of View... from a teacher in a secular high-school.  [Caveat:  Read at the risk of being annoyed.  But maybe awakened.]

[Anyone... feel free to jump in and post your thoughts... or related questions.] 

Food for thought:    "Can an individual be an effective Christian without knowing all this?

[from a Christian professor]  "At 60 years of age, much of this is new to me. I have also lived in countries where even the pastors had not electricity, refrigerators, air conditioners on the equator, cook with wood or charcoal, and even have to fetch their water in buckets.  Can they be effective Christians? What in the world did Christians do before psychologists and computers? Knowledge is certainly increasing but is the knowledge of the Word and of our God increasing with the increase in knowledge. Please don't misunderstand me, I have a student studying Bible intensely, from Georgia, living and serving in Bolivia and I am the professor with whom she has regular contact and who grades all her work. My question is: where is the balance? Do I spend my extra time in the Electronic end leaning all it will take to make me effective or do I spend it in the Word of God and allow HIM to use me by His Spirit as He will - or is there somewhere in between that I need to find. I think you are - at least in this new information - at the other end of a pendulum and we both probably need to swing each other's direction a little."

Discussion Points:

• Is the (American) Church effective the way we've BEEN operating?  Or should we perhaps be seeking new opportunites for change? 
• Paul said, "We spread the gospel RAPIDLY."  Are we?  WWPD?
• Do YOU want to see change, personally, corporately in the Church, and transformation in the world?  What's the biblical plan to accomplish it?  Or even communicate the plan?
• If Jesus were to upset the tables in the Church in our day, might it be a great time to reconfigure the Church?  Is the 'paradigm shift' one such opportunity?
• Eph 3:20
• Eph 2:10
• "It's not as if God needs anything made by human hands."  (...but how about our neighbors?)
• A truism known by businessmen is... the best advertising is by 'word of mouth'.  Why?  What if the 'new media' represents USER-level communication/media... ie, word of mouth (think about social-networking's power to communicate among your strongest relationships)? 
• Paul suggested he'd be anything to anyone so as to share the gospel -- would we?
• Jonathon Edwards' #2 Resolution... (paraphrasing)... to implement any innovation so as to expedite his #1 Resolution.
• The printing press as an innovation that reconfigured the Church?
• Jesus preaching from a boat across the very sound-reflective water.  Or preaching from the mount?  Moses likewise.  Did these advantanges serve a purpose?
• Phillip coming aboard the chariot of the Ethopian Eunuch?  Why didn't he decline?  "Sorry; I don't do 'wheels'."
• Info for change?  How do YOU (otherwise) stay abreast of the world around you... including key aspects of the Christian world?  [...instead of an RSS reader, for instance]
• Info to change?  How do you otherwise communicate/advocate with great impact for needed change?  [without using digital media and the internet-based communication system?]
• What technologies DO you use?  [surely some, right?]   Why?
• What if you become convinced of the need for communicating via new media, but simply choose not to do so?
•  
•  
•  
• Now bottom line... WWJD in the 21st Century?
•  I'm thinking the question is not, "what would He do", it is, "What IS Jesus doing?" I'm working with both a 0.0 community (face-to-face) and a 2.0 community (primarily online). In both I am having spiritually significant conversations. In both I am hearing and sharing prayer requests, asking and answering questions, giving and receiving counsel. Do I expect everyone to use every technology? No. But am I inviting people along for the ride? Absolutely.

   

  Here are two examples from my blog: 2 kinds of service talks about using ustream to go outside usual computer users. Community  illustrates the kinds of conversations that can happen. Jon Swanson

•  
•  
•  

Or...   "Why do I need to learn all this when YOU could do it for me?"   Please understand, I am not at all opposed to Technology. It is just that some of us will never be “up to par” in technology because our spare time cannot be spent in technological experimentation or improvement. We need guys like you to come behind or alongside and help get the material out.

Discussion Points:

•  
• Is one major difference between man & beast is.... use of tools?  Who SHOULD BE capable tool-users if not everyone?
• Is technology truly a USER-tool?  And if so, which users can afford not to use it (at least at some practical level)? 
• How similar might it be to asking your secretary to preach your sermon on Sunday?  Or write your mom for you?  Or call your clients for you?
• Beyond today... what about impacting the world tomorrow?  Do you plan to have much impact in the future?  And if so, what do you need to start delving into for YOURSELF and learning today?
• Do you hope to LEAD people?  Or just be an 'also-ran'?  What is leadership anyway?  And especially for the 21st Century?
• Suppose there truly is a digital divide, especially between races and economic classes... Do leaders have a responsibility to help?  And how will they help, if not leading by example as an e-capable leader?  Who influences inner-city congregations the most, if not the pastor?
• What's the (real) cost of having someone else do something for you?  And even if you THINK it's 'free'... what happens when their patience wears thin with (former) leaders unwilling to be reasonable e-capable?
• On the other hand, just because everyone in the world has a story, is everyone a storyteller? Or are there people who are better story tellers? Did Paul write all of his letters or was there someone that could do the writing? Did Jeremiah do all the writing or was tehre someone who did the writing for him? (The answer to the last question is that someone wrote it, and God even gave a message to the scribe when the message was getting too intense.) So perhaps there need to be more than the current network-level storytellers, but fewer than 8 billion storytellers, people who are basically trained as tellers, translators, helpers.
•  
• WWJD?

Ok, what level of e-capability should EVERY CHRISTIAN have?

• See e-capable Christians wiki-page.  (And know that it will be constantly changing/advancing.)
• Agree?  Disagree?  Why?  Why Not?
•  
•  
•  
•  
• WWJD?
•  
•  

Stray Links, Thoughts & Questions...

• Cynthia Ware's article (and ton of links)... "7 Helps for Pastors Who Hate Technology"