Church and Technology
An interesting read about how technology is infiltrating the worship experience in an exploding market known as “house of worship technology.”
Is this the direction your church should be heading? How would you feel to see your church packed out? Or maybe we should just keep doing what we have done because “we have always done it like this”.
April 28th, 2006 at 7:52 am
I think there has to be some kind of middle of the road. There are older folks who might not care for the “NOISE” they would hear in a contemporary service, and the younger group may not care for the solomn quiet of a traditional service. A possibility of seperate services could accommodate the needs but the technology certainly does change the characteristics of the service. Visual aids seem to stimulate participation at some level whether it is written or visual attentiveness. The worship service is about meeting God and lifting Him up and some folks need different atmospheres to do that.
If we put the 100 year rule into effect some people may never have the opportunity to meet Him. We have done it this way for 100 years, why change? People change and so do their needs, one of those needs is God whether they know it or not. Take the opportunity to pack the house and see what God does with that.
That was an interesting article. We have experienced what better equipment can do for a service. It would be great to see what more of that could do to open the doors a little more and be able to say, “OK SINNERS, ARE YOU READY TO ROCK?!” — sorry bill, i couldn’t resist
April 28th, 2006 at 8:44 am
I think there is something to be said for meeting the people where they are and certainly the younger generation relates to that very well. Everthing in our society seems to come to us these days where ever we are -through the internet, podcasts, cell phones etc so I get the idea of meeting the people where they are in a way that they can relate to easily.
The down side, in my opinion, is that it makes it easier to get caught up in the experience … I think it, at times, might lead people into the thinking that this is what worship looks like and this is what true and “good” worship is supposed to look and sound like. Then you get caught up in the public worship exceeding that private worship…caught up in the experience rather than caught up in Jesus.
Like anything else balance is the key i guess
However, I have to say that I am a bit nauseated by the mention of MILLIONS of dollars being spent on technology…I’m really afraid to even wonder what they spend on missions…the people that could be fed, clothed, cared for, ministered to with that kind of money. Maybe they are very committed to those things, like I said I’m afraid to even wonder.
April 28th, 2006 at 8:54 am
Lakewood Church info about some of their giving. You can also give your Tithes and Offerings online – one more advantage that technology gives us!
April 28th, 2006 at 9:46 am
A comment on the process of getting caught up in the moment — it happens every year in VBS. There are some true acceptance and some because they see others doing it. If they are there and allow an open heart for the moment than a face-to-face is their experience, if not, it is just another good time they may return because of. Those that return may fall into a place at one point where they then experience their own face-to-face, but if we don’t provide that place to meet they will either never go or find it somewhere else. I have see some of those other places and there is not a God thing, it is a money thing.
We have to be careful to keep God in the forefront of the decisions we make in regards to corporate worship because it is a personal worship also. When we start worrying about whether the money is coming in then we moved God out and reset the dimension of what we started.
May 4th, 2006 at 11:38 am
Just ran across this article, Jesus, CEO and thought I would include as reading materiel.