Rome built roads, and then Paul planted churches. Alexander conquered the then known world and gave it one common language, and the New Testament was canonized in his Koine Greek. The printing press was invented, and Martin Luther put a Bible in the hands of anyone who wanted one. Now, as we sit on the heels of the most seminal communication breakthrough ever, the church is poised for enormous growth and expansion.
While many churches, especially some large churches, new churches, and innovated churches, have embraced this new technology to spread the gospel, many (I think I might be able to say most) churches are far behind. Within the new Rio Texas Conference (which becomes a reality in January) we still have churches that are mostly invisible in the world of the web and social media. Others have stuck their foot in the water but have so far to go. Sometimes it is due to a lack of resources or information. Other times it is a failure to realize and remember that God has always used technology to spread the word.
Ignoring the technology that is available would be like Paul deciding that he didn’t want to walk on the Roman roads to get to the cities he was called to go to or Gutenberg thinking that printing was just a fad and not a worthy tool for sharing God’s word.
Technology is not without dangers and pitfalls. Roman roads were pretty dicey too and a number of people died (and still do) trying to get printed bibles into the hands of people. However, that is a reason to be careful, not a reason to stand still. I continue to encourage the new Rio Texas Conference to adopt a “No Church Left Behind” approach the technology. We need every church to have access to a broadband internet connection. Every church should have a vibrant “front door” website. All of our congregations should have some amount of presence in the ever changing social media world. These churches also need to have access to technology that can help them reach their mission field in contextually appropriate ways.
You can read the full article on Parse here:
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