Replied to: learn.liberty.edu

Hi Kevin,

Thanks for your thoughtful post about ways in which churches can better engage the culture around them with technology. I agree with your post. I think an important aspect to the church using technology is seen when we look at the book of Acts. When talking about the lives of the early church it says "Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts" (Acts 2:46a NIV) That is an important clarification because the temple courts were a place where an outdoor gathering area near the temple. You can think of this as a local Starbucks or park. It was common that people would just come and spend time in the Temple Courts, not just when they were worshiping. "Users today expect to be able to interact with your site. They expect video. They expect to be able to view your site on their mobile device. They don’t want to have to work hard to find you: they expect you to come to them. I can sum it up this way: they expect a relationship" (Bourgeois, 2013, loc. 76-78).

The early Christians spent daily time out amid the people of the culture around them in the temple courts. In the same way, modern churches need to ensure that we are approachable and spending time among our culture. I think that really hits home your mention of social media. There are cultural phenomena such as Reddit AMAs (Ask Me Anything), Facebook Live and more. It's important that the church engages culture within these areas. What if every church service was streamed on Facebook Live so people could share their service on their friends newsfeed and people could comment on it. What if Pastors periodically did AMAs on Reddit? These are ways for culture to find out more about what the church is really saying without trying to force them in our doors first. How does a church get to the point that they are trying things like this? It all comes down to having a digital ministry framework. "The single most important thing you can do for your ministry’s use of the Internet and social media is to design, document and implement a digital strategy. It is not enough to rely on one person in your ministry to put up an attractive website or to give a volunteer the task of managing your Facebook page. You must be intentional" (Bourgeois, 2013, loc. 79-81)

Bibliography

Bourgeois, D. T. (2013). Ministry in the Digital Age: Strategies and Best Practices for a Post-Website World. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.