Toolbox For Faith

I carry my iPhone with me everywhere. I use it to check email, read the news, keep up with my daily tasks, keep my contact list, send texts and occasionally make phone calls. I’ve had my phone for about eight months now, so I am still fairly new to the smart-phone world, but I can already see how it is changing the way that I communicate and undertake ministry. In a previous time, I checked email occasionally while I was in the office. These days, I check email constantly and exchange messages with people in the congregation throughout the day. In a previous time, I would stay around the office waiting for people to call. These days, I have a growing number of church folks who send me texts to ask quick questions or update me with messages like, “Mom’s out of surgery.” In a previous time, I went back to my office to access ministry resources. These days, I have used my phone to look up hospital information for a family and to find directions to make a visit. In just eight months, my iPhone has become a tool I depend on to accomplish ministry on a daily basis.

As I think about these changes in myself and the way that I do ministry, I have started to wonder if congregations are adapting quickly enough to changes in communication. For example, should the church have a cell phone so we can send and receive text messages from the church to our youth? As people become accustomed to receiving a constant flow of information, what does it look like for a congregation to shift from a large monthly newsletter to a system which provides ministry news in small digestible bits through multiple streams? As everyone transitions away from having one home phone number to having their own personal phone number that they carry with them constantly, how will we respect the privacy of staff and congregants? In general, I guess it all boils down to this - how will we adapt to the possibilities these new communication tools provide and the expectations that they create?

It seems like every few years someone produces another article discussing the impending death of national denominational bodies. This morning, George Bullard posted a critique of national denominational bodies and offered a few suggestions for how they might be revitalized. You can read the article here.

For years, my Worship Committee has discussed the balance we strike in our bulletin between hospitality and care of creation. On one hand, we would like to print the entire service in the bulletin so that new worshipers can follow along easily. On the other hand, we feel like printing the entire service in the bulletin uses entirely too much paper. Each time this conversation has come up, I have mentioned that I could envision a day when the hymnal and bulletin were replaced by electronic tablets that are loaded with everything you need for the service. The group would always laugh and talk about the amazing cost of doing something like that and then move on.

With the introduction of Apple’s I-pad and the growing popularity of e-readers and tablet computers, I have begun to think that my idea may not be that far off. I can easily imagine a time when we email our entire service to the congregation on Friday. People download the “e-bulletin” to their tablet computer and then use it to follow along with worship. I can also imagine someone showing up at worship and downloading the “e-bulletin” from the church’s wireless network right before service begins. I certainly don’t think this will happen next week or next year, but if textbooks, newspapers and magazines all migrate from paper to e-readers and people start carrying their tablet computers the way they carry their phone, then the “e-bulletin” won’t be far behind.