Technology can help spread the Gospel

I remember when I was a kid and my dad had just bought an Atari for my brother and I for Christmas. We were mesmerized by the fantastic graphics of the game Pong. It consisted of two one inch lines and a dot that went back and forth. My brother and I played that game for hours. That game was definitely humble beginnings compared to what video games are like today. The technological advances have been amazing to say the least.

High level technological advances have so permeated our culture that things like high speed Internet, cell phones, and I-Pods are seemingly as much a necessity as food and water. Kids as young as 5 years old can navigate a computer better than most adults. What's more, it is not uncommon for elementary aged kids to carry cell phones. This is not to mention the latest in TV technology that has made watching our favorite TV show a high definition experience on TV or online. Technology is here to stay.

The Church must ask itself how it will reach a technologically advanced society. We definitely have to speak the language of the people. Today that language is conveyed through technology. Technology such as Power Point, video clips, Web sites, blogs are just some that I am aware of but there will be more to come. In the last year and a half my church has made a concerted effort to use technology by introducing sermons with video clips, reinforcing sermon points with Power Point, and reaching out to the community with a Web site and two weekly blogs. We have decided to use technology as a means to convey the message of the gospel to reach as many as we can in the time we have.

The Church of the 21st Century must never change its message, but to be relevant may have to change its methods. Technologically speaking we may need to upgrade from an Atari to a Play Station 3 if we hope to be relevant. No one would consider hanging on to an Atari just because this is the way we have always played video games. How much more important are the people who need what Jesus Christ has to offer. We must seek to reach them by all means possible. Missionaries call this kind of endeavor contexualization. This is when people communicate the Gospel in ways that can be understood by the hearer. We must strive to be "all things to all men that we might reach some" -- just some food for thought.