by Jonathan Owens
Originally published on Doxopolis, a culture blog from the staff at The City, a church-focused social network product. You may view an archived copy on Tumblr.
This is not something I would write anymore, but it is preserved here for posterity. This was a long and impactful season of my life.
We don’t have to become weak to make God’s power perfect, we already are, and it already is. We don’t need the power of technology to serve the church, nor does God, but in His perfect power, it can be wielded.
Do not think of technology as something with great power to change lives, or something that will give you insight into how to serve the church. It is neither, despite what it promises. God is the force behind every good change in his church, and He has perfect insight into how it should be served. He is the one renewing your mind and giving you the creativity and insight into how to serve, and He is the one bringing you into his work of changing lives. The church survived and thrived for thousands of years before the microprocessor, and has outlasted every technology that would threaten to destroy it, including television, rock music, and the cross. It will out-last the Internet, and reach people by any means God deems necessary.
Do you have a vision for what your church would look like without the habits and tools you use to run it? How much would attendance drop if your projectors went out? Would your people still come if you had to meet in a field with acoustic guitars and no PowerPoint?
Your church would still be a church if every video camera, printer, and laptop it had stopped working. God will not hold you accountable for whether you improved your church’s tithe percentage, or how many Facebook fans it has. He will not congratulate you on your excellent growth rates or visitor follow-up percentage. He will ask how you shepherded the people He brings to you into faithfulness and worship. He will ask whether your people treasure Christ as their first love.
tags: