The down side of technology - for the church
The down side of technology - for the church
The pace of technology is simply amazing! What seemed to be something that's so brand new yesterday (be it a mobile phone, laptop, desktop, digital camera, TV, etc, etc) can in the next moment be something of the past, or be faced with the fate of being obsoleted.
While technology has helped to improve life somewhat, making learning much easier and multi-sensory, making life more convenient at the click of a button, etc - it does have it's flip side too. Well, at least I think it has affected the church somewhat. How? Let me elaborate ...
You and I are not unfamiliar to pastors and preachers using powerpoint slides for Sunday service sermons or teaching sessions. That's no longer a novelty - now it seems that those using these aids are trying to find new ways to include songs, videos, animations, etc to make their presentation even more interesting. Gone were the days where your audience sit still to listen to you speak, their thoughts following you along as you develop your points. Gone were the days where people learn to really use their brains to "test everything" that the speaker bring across to them. It seems that with technology, when points of the sermon are projected, they are also absorbed unwittingly by the audience as easily as they are being projected.
The other down side I realized is that people no longer seemed to make their Bible their treasured possession - something which they bring along every Sunday. Now with PDAs and verses easily projected on the screen, who needs to carry Bibles with them? Travel light and comfortably to church - that seems to be what most are doing. Sad!! The consequence of this "comfort" is that we now no longer treasure our Bibles that much, not to even mention that because we hardly "come into contact" with our Bibles, we don't even know how to flip to the verses required - surely it's not unfamiliar to you to hear comments like, "Umm... where is such and such a book?", or seeing how people frantically flipping to the content page of the Bible to look for the right book the pastor mentions.
Sigh* pathetic state of mankind in a progressively advancing technological world. Has the command God gave to Joshua in 1:7-8 gone unheeded? "Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful."
Your thoughts???
The pace of technology is simply amazing! What seemed to be something that's so brand new yesterday (be it a mobile phone, laptop, desktop, digital camera, TV, etc, etc) can in the next moment be something of the past, or be faced with the fate of being obsoleted.
While technology has helped to improve life somewhat, making learning much easier and multi-sensory, making life more convenient at the click of a button, etc - it does have it's flip side too. Well, at least I think it has affected the church somewhat. How? Let me elaborate ...
You and I are not unfamiliar to pastors and preachers using powerpoint slides for Sunday service sermons or teaching sessions. That's no longer a novelty - now it seems that those using these aids are trying to find new ways to include songs, videos, animations, etc to make their presentation even more interesting. Gone were the days where your audience sit still to listen to you speak, their thoughts following you along as you develop your points. Gone were the days where people learn to really use their brains to "test everything" that the speaker bring across to them. It seems that with technology, when points of the sermon are projected, they are also absorbed unwittingly by the audience as easily as they are being projected.
The other down side I realized is that people no longer seemed to make their Bible their treasured possession - something which they bring along every Sunday. Now with PDAs and verses easily projected on the screen, who needs to carry Bibles with them? Travel light and comfortably to church - that seems to be what most are doing. Sad!! The consequence of this "comfort" is that we now no longer treasure our Bibles that much, not to even mention that because we hardly "come into contact" with our Bibles, we don't even know how to flip to the verses required - surely it's not unfamiliar to you to hear comments like, "Umm... where is such and such a book?", or seeing how people frantically flipping to the content page of the Bible to look for the right book the pastor mentions.
Sigh* pathetic state of mankind in a progressively advancing technological world. Has the command God gave to Joshua in 1:7-8 gone unheeded? "Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful."
Your thoughts???
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