You can tell a lot about someone by how they spend their money. The same goes for an organization. If a company invests a lot of money in a high tech security system you know they care about securing and protecting something they have. The same goes with how the church spend it's budget. If a church spends a majority of it's tech budget on a sound system and lighting what does that say about the church? Let's focus in on the church tech budget. So, how does your church spend it's tech budget? And, does that reflect the priorities of you church?
This was sparked by a comment Darrin made on a SAP episode. He was talking about how a lot of churches spend a lot of money on sound, lighting, and presentation but tend to neglect their websites. At churches like this what does this say about their priorities.
My take on the priorities this shows, and please show me something different if you see it, is that their concentration is on a good production for their worship services. Is this supposed to be the concentration of the church? Of your church?
I find this focal point to be one of interest. There are 168 hours in a week. The tech financial focal point is 1 hour a week for the congregation. Why is that?
Part of my reason for this post and I'm assuming Darrins' comment were due to talk about community we have been having over on Geeks and God. We've been talking about how the church has grown into an organization for many and not a community of Gods people. The series of episodes concentrated on how to use the Internet to help grow that church community. So, as a community we can do the mission of the church together.
A community is how Christ did it. A community is how the early church existed. The bible says when 2 or more are gathered God is present. When Jesus sent people out he sent them out in at least twos. Jesus had is apostles as close community and his disciples that were with him, too. Through the whole time Jesus was fulfilling what he was doing, teaching others, and healing people he did it with a community of people. So, why don't we use our church tech to do that? Especially in this age of social networking where the tools are already there for us.
The mission of the church is to make disciples by teaching and baptizing. While, I'm not sure how we can use technology to help make disciples by baptizing (I won't rule out monitors with built in squirt guns) there are a lot of ways we can teach with technology. And, do it in a way that isn't just 'feeding the flock' but is outreaching to others.
So, does your church tech spending reflect the mission of the church? Of your church? If not, you might want to start thinking about how it could.
Recent comments