Jesus + Rick Warren + Technology = Transformation
Jesus + Rick Warren + Technology = Transformation
For some reason in my twitter feed a link to a Church IT RoundTable (CITRT) or as the uber Geeks call themselves 'CITRT' popped up. A minute later (thanks to the organisation of CITRT) I was watching Rick Warren talk to this room of 'Super Church IT Knights Of The Round Table.
Just as an aside, the acronym CITRT does remind me an organisation that someone like James Bond or the Man From Uncle would be fighting against. I would imagine all of the CITRT operatives to be wearing black polo necks and tight 70's style pants with an evil, knowing looking in there eyes. Hopefully CITRT don't have plans for world domination. Just yet.
But I digress.
Rick made some great points that I expand on:
1) The Reformation would never have happened without the printing press. (Yes, yes Rick, church history is fun.) The printing press allowed the Bible to be printed into the native German language and ignite the protestant movement. Brilliant. Rick's point was well made. At different times in history, technology allowed the gospel to spread like it has never done before. The internet, socia media such as Facebook, Twitter etc are all playing their part in the spread of the gospel. The sleeping giant is mobile internet. I unpacked that a little further in a previous post.
2) The number one goal in church technology is to make the big church small. Crossway is a very large church and we are in the process of implementing a church management system (ChMS) which will help us pastorally care for all age groups, help people to connect into life groups, register for events, check in their kids at the weekend (and track their attendence and pastorally care for them), and enable people to volunteer online.
3) The message never changes, but the methods have to. In ten years time we will be talking about some new amazing tool that will help us care for people, or spread the gospel over whatever the internet looks like. The exciting part of me? IThis tool hasn't even been invented yet. Our methods to spread the gospel will always change, but the heart of the gospel message is the same. Web 2.0? So yesterday.
4) It's more important to change lives than be cool. Twitter. Facebook. Blogging. Online Streaming. Internet Church. Mac computers. All. Cool. But being cool isn't our goal. Changed lives are. As good as these methods are, they are just methods. Changed lives are the goal.
5) My goal and your goal is the global glory of God. It's not about making our mark. It's about making His mark.
As a communicator I rely on IT peeps to implement alot of what I start. Without them. I'm mostly redundant. Thanks to all of you. Geek on.
Related posts
Church Marketing Myth No. 1
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Church Marketing Myth No. 3
Church Marketing Everything
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GREAT post – thank you!!
I love this thinking. Good stuff Steve…
I think in line with Warrens second principle, I think using online relationships and connections to create better offline relationships. I think leveraging the advantages (time shifting, large space, multimedia) can be leveraged to bring people together. At the end of the day, deeping relationships in the small group context is. Each of us is created in the image of God and like a snowflake–individual. Small groups empowered by technology can transform individual, church, and community lives.
Thanks for publishing this–great insight and vision.
I found this post very interesting and commented about it over at my blog Seems to me we’re actually encouraging our children to teach by testing them on the wrong things. In this age of instantly-available information, tests should be based on understanding and application, not on rote repeating of data. You can cheat facts and figures, but no cheating system can cheat understanding!
Definitely a valuable point. It’s human nature to have a kind of inertia to everything we do, especially when the old way has worked before and our goal is too valuable to get careless (like spreading the gospel or finding food). But, that makes it easy to ignore new technology and to see it as something to keep in the trivial (where a potential blow-up doesn’t risk real damage to something valuable).
Of course, if we give into the temptation to lag behind technologically, we risk missing out on the benefits of something like the printing press or internet. Just imagine the people you could have reached if you were one of the first churches with a website. How many opportunities for getting the Gospel out there would you have had? Probably the best way to organize all your efforts with new technology is with a church management software. Since I work for a company that makes that kind of software, I won’t promote any in particular, but if you want tips on finding the right software, and asking the right questions to make sure you get all the facts, you can read them at http://www.excellerate.com/?articles/a_findingrightcms
Dear Pastor Rick
Greetings to you in Jesus’ name
Iam so glad to ask you to help me developing the subject about having a good transformation with Jesus.I would like you helping with all information about HELL.
God bless you
Clexorne
Dear Pastor Rick
I so appreciate the wonderful work you are doing all over the nations today in spreading the word of God to allow many peoples know him. Congratulation!!!
I would like you coming to Haiti to preach this message with my people there.Don’t say not before God talks to you in this matter.
Hoping to see you soon to Haiti.
I see my website check out you will see what I mean.
In Christ’ service
Pastor Clexorne
The methods ABSOLUTELY have to change. So often the church is the last ones to catch onto technology. Its a share because technology can be used for the good or evil. Whoever knows how to use it is king…or in our case servant