Remembering "Old School" Technology

Don't Forget the Old-School Technology

By Jennifer Armitage |Wesleyan Life Online/ Released: Jul. 14, 2011 | In: Blog Feature

With the popularity of iPods and other mp3 players, many churches have utilized podcasts to reach out across the world with great success. But are we making sure that we are not so excited to embrace the new that we throw out the old too soon?

Not everyone has an mp3 player or streams audio online, but cars still have built-in CD players. Sermons on CD still have uses for those who are not mp3 savvy. Or just haven’t charged their iPod. It’s a cheap and easy way to put a message in the hands of your congregation.

Here are some people it will specifically benefit:

1. New People
A CD with two or three different sermons makes a great addition to a new attender packet or even to offer to new attendees. If your church has a special day with testimonies and baptisms and a first-time attender that day, they don’t really get a good idea of what the message or tone of the church is really like. You can give them the option to get a real feel for your church beyond that day’s service.

2. Absentees
When regular attenders miss a week or three, it can be easy for them to feel out of the loop and eventually drift away. By having the last sermon or the current sermon series available for free on CD, they can catch up and still feel connected.

3. Seniors
Many seniors, including the shut-in seniors who can’t come during bad weather or at all, have CD players at home. It’s most likely a technology they have mastered, and won’t take a long orientation. They can still get fed by the church they love, even if their circumstances prevent it.

4. Anyone Who Has a Car with a Working CD Player
When the iPod is uncharged or left behind, even the tech masters still have a CD player in the car. Why not give them an option to pop in a CD of [Your church name]’s greatest hits? Or let people get a copy of the sermon that particularly inspired them that they can listen to in the car when they need to hear it.

As church communicators we are tasked with reaching everyone in our church no matter age, demographic, or where they are in their relationship with God. We need to make sure we keep the same outlook on our use of technology too—even if that means going back to the cassette tape (remember the plastic square with two holes that you had to turn over to listen to more than four songs?).

Jennifer Armitage is the director of communications and community outreach at Crossroads Christian Fellowship (Wesleyan) in Sacramento, Calif. Used with permission from Church Marketing Sucks.

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This is My Father's "Digital" World

By: Chuck Colson

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Look around you. Every young person you see has a cell phone. And many of those are smartphones, which put the Internet, dozens of games, and other applications in the palms of their hands.

They’re probably not checking their email on those smartphones. This is a generation that considers email passé. They’re into social networking sites—sites like Facebook and Twitter. It’s networking that consumes their attention and hours of their time every day--and they don’t always use it wisely.

For example, twenty-eight percent of young social network users admit to sharing information online that they would never have shared in public if they were face-to-face. And 22 percent—that’s right 22 percent--say that they’ve posted pictures of themselves or friends.

As Dr. David Murray, Professor of Practical Theology at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary notes, technology has changed the way we “study, play, socialize, shop, and even apply for jobs.” Believe it or not, one out of eight couples married in the US met on a social networking site.

Murray, the father of four, is a firm believer in the good of technology. He is also well aware of the dangers—especially the dangers to children. After thinking through how to best teach his own children how to thrive in the digital age, he produced a short video: “God’s Technology: Training Our Children to Use Technology to God’s Glory.” In it Murray shares biblical wisdom and applies a Christian worldview to kids and technology.

He begins with four biblical principles. First, God created technology. He made the physical elements like silicon that we use to make digital devices. He made the forces of electricity and magnetism that allow technology to work. And he made human minds and gave them the creativity to build computers, cell phones and iPads.

Second, because God created technology, it is not inherently sinful; instead (principle three) it has many good uses—including bringing BreakPoint to you every day. Finally and tragically, Murray notes, technology has been abused because we are sinners.

How does that apply to our children?

Well, because technology is created by God and has good uses, we should want our children to enjoy technology’s benefits. But we can’t ignore the dangers and embrace the digital world without what Murray calls “disciplined discernment.” And Murray gives sound, practical parenting advice concerning Facebook, where children desperately need that disciplined discernment.

As Calvin College professor Quentin Schultz wrote in his book Habits of the High-Tech Heart, “Cyberculture offers us no means to rise above the entropic noise, no dwelling place to catch our breath, gather our wits, discern our course, and become more intrinsically moral people.”

If we and our children are going to use digital technologies wisely and morally, it will be because we make an intentional effort to apply our Christian worldview to technology.

And the video “God’s Technology” is a great place to start. Visit BreakPoint dot org, click on this commentary, and we’ll tell you how you can get the video and other resources to protect your kids online.