All the leading voices agree — online church services are not just recording church. So then, what is online church? Here are some of the best principles experts agree on about how to think of online church.
Most of us have visited a new church for the first time. It’s a unique experience and one that many churches struggle to perfect. Thinking through each step that affects a newcomer can be tricky, especially if you have been part of the church for years and know everything there is to know.
There are still many educators for whom online education represents uncharted territory or a medium for which their skills are “good enough,” and not excellent. Here are a couple reasons to level up the online experience for students with a video-sharing platform.
For all churches, the pursuit of efficiency is high on the list of things to achieve. When churches and Sunday services run efficiently, the church serving experience is far less stressed and everyone is released to be more Kingdom-focused than system-focused. This is why churches must use integrated ministry platforms to aid their tasks.
In past years, many of us have separated how businesses run from how churches run. The church isn’t about making a profit and getting more revenue, but that doesn’t mean there are a lot of things we can learn about operations, efficiency, and even the techniques of onboarding.
Now that there are actual VR churches in existence – ones with real congregations and even baptisms – it’s clear that we do not have to wait for a world where church can be held in the metaverse any longer. In this article, we’ll explore what is making it easier than ever.
Bible software can be a great resource for Bible study, graduate studies, sermon prep, personal devotions, group reading plans, and the list goes on. But with so many different options on the market, it can be hard to know which one is right for you. The following considerations will help.
Drafting your sermon application could be tedious, especially looking for actionable sections of your passage. With the use of Logos Bible Software, you could have these imperative verbs highlighted automatically, making sermon prep easier.
At the rate of 30% of volunteers quitting to serve each year, the church doesn’t want to give willing community members a reason to join that statistic. Using smart software that allows volunteers to easily and quickly sign up for opportunities helps.
Get featured on the Church Tech Today blog when you answer some industry-specific questions about your workstation, your gear, and your church's livestream details.
Lighting consoles are the stuff of dreams when you’re a church lighting director. For Jeremiah Trombley from San Antonio’s CityChurch, he has found a solution in the Hog4 Lighting Rig.
Tyndale offers several editions of the Filament Bible that pair with Filament, an app filled with study tools, devotionals, videos, and interactive content.
All the leading voices agree — online church services are not just recording church. So then, what is online church? Here are some of the best principles experts agree on about how to think of online church.
Most of us have visited a new church for the first time. It’s a unique experience and one that many churches struggle to perfect. Thinking through each step that affects a newcomer can be tricky, especially if you have been part of the church for years and know everything there is to know.
There are still many educators for whom online education represents uncharted territory or a medium for which their skills are “good enough,” and not excellent. Here are a couple reasons to level up the online experience for students with a video-sharing platform.
For all churches, the pursuit of efficiency is high on the list of things to achieve. When churches and Sunday services run efficiently, the church serving experience is far less stressed and everyone is released to be more Kingdom-focused than system-focused. This is why churches must use integrated ministry platforms to aid their tasks.
In past years, many of us have separated how businesses run from how churches run. The church isn’t about making a profit and getting more revenue, but that doesn’t mean there are a lot of things we can learn about operations, efficiency, and even the techniques of onboarding.
Now that there are actual VR churches in existence – ones with real congregations and even baptisms – it’s clear that we do not have to wait for a world where church can be held in the metaverse any longer. In this article, we’ll explore what is making it easier than ever.
Bible software can be a great resource for Bible study, graduate studies, sermon prep, personal devotions, group reading plans, and the list goes on. But with so many different options on the market, it can be hard to know which one is right for you. The following considerations will help.
Drafting your sermon application could be tedious, especially looking for actionable sections of your passage. With the use of Logos Bible Software, you could have these imperative verbs highlighted automatically, making sermon prep easier.
At the rate of 30% of volunteers quitting to serve each year, the church doesn’t want to give willing community members a reason to join that statistic. Using smart software that allows volunteers to easily and quickly sign up for opportunities helps.
Get featured on the Church Tech Today blog when you answer some industry-specific questions about your workstation, your gear, and your church's livestream details.
Lighting consoles are the stuff of dreams when you’re a church lighting director. For Jeremiah Trombley from San Antonio’s CityChurch, he has found a solution in the Hog4 Lighting Rig.
Tyndale offers several editions of the Filament Bible that pair with Filament, an app filled with study tools, devotionals, videos, and interactive content.
Have you thought much about life and faith after the digital explosion? Since this is a blog about church technology, I thought it appropriate to read, review, and share about Tim Challies’ book entitled “The Next Story: Life and Faith after the Digital Explosion” This book is a fascinating read, filled with thought-provoking nuggets of wisdom about how technology fits into the life of a Christ-follower. Just when you thought God wasn’t looking when you were online, or in what church technology you use, now it’s time to reconsider how we perceive, use, and allocate technology in our lives from the ground up.
In reading Challies’ book, I highlighted some passages that I wanted to share with you. Of course, you do really need to read the entire book to understand all the points the author makes, but here are a selections of passages that leaped off the page and caused me to ponder my own use of technology both personally and professionally.
Many of us live in the experience circle, where we have never invested any significant effort in understanding the theory of technology and have never paused to even consider the theological dimension of technology. We use technology without thinking deeply about it, without really understanding what it is or how it impacts our lives and our hearts. (pp 14)
God calls us to use our minds, to use our Spirit-filled hearts, to distinguish between good and evil, between right and wrong, even in our use of technology. (pp. 16)
Definition of technology: Technology is the creative activity of using tools to shape God’s creation for practical purposes. (adapted from Responsible Technology by Stephen V. Monsma)
In a fallen world, technology enables human survival. It is all that stands between us and abject misery. (pp. 24)
Our idols like to hide from us, staying at a place in our hearts where we barely notice their existence. (pp. 28)
We may find ourselves drawn and even addicted to technology, unable to imagine life without it. (pp. 28)
Technology becomes an idol when we start to believe that humanity’s hope, humanity’s future, will be found in more and better technology. It become san idol when we place greater hope in technology than in God and when we measure human progress, not by the state of our hearts, but by new innovations in technology. (pp. 30)
. . . every technology brings with it both risk and opportunity. Every technology soles some problems while also introducing new ones; it opens up new opportunities even while imposing some new limitations. (pp. 36)
This (finding the message of technology) will require a humble willingness to evaluate our own lives and compare the ways we are being shaped by a given technology with the life God envisions for us in the Scriptures.” (pp. 39)
We find that most of our digital technologies are created to enhance our ability to communicate. (pp. 41)
. . . technology is not addictive but ecological, changing the very structure of life and society; that technology shifts power; and that technologies cause biological change as the human body adapts to its most important influences. (pp. 46)
We cannot afford to be so shallow as to think that we can enthusiastically embrace a new technology without eventually suffering from at least some of its drawbacks. (pp. 61)
Technology is generally created independently from the way it will eventually be used. (pp. 62)
Yet today many of us update our Facebook status and Twitter streams with near-religious fervor, almost as if we have not actually experienced anything until we’ve told others about it. (pp. 71)
As we may experience a vacation through the little LCD screen of a digital camera, we now experience much of life through social media. What we haven’t shared with the world seems like it has hardly been experienced at all. (pp. 71)
At a time when we are increasingly disconnected from place, a cell phone seems to represent home. As long as we have a phone, we can find and be found. (pp. 73)
Remember one of our key insights into technology: a technology wears its benefits on its sleeve–but the drawbacks are buried deep within. (pp. 74)
Studies now show that many young people are actually losing their ability to relate to one another in an offline context. (pp. 77)
In some contexts, digital communication has become the more
“natural” form of communication. (pp. 77)
The challenge for the Christian is to learn to use these media with all the opportunities they bring to speak and to tell of this God who speaks through us. We need to use our words to speak his words. (pp. 81)
Of the ideal means of communication between God and man is unmediated, so too is the ideal communication between humans. (pp. 94)
I hope you’ve found the nuggets I’ve share from Challies’ book interesting. If you are a church staff member, pastor, church technologist, communicator, or just a regular joe, I highly recommend “The Next Story” to add to your Kindle reading list!
Lauren Hunter is a writer who loves the big picture of God’s journey we are all on together. In 2007, she founded ChurchTechToday, a website for pastors and church leaders to harness technology to improve ministry. Married to her high school sweetheart, Lauren lives in Northern California with her husband and their four children. Her latest book is Leaving Christian Science: 10 Stories of New Faith in Jesus Christ. She can be found online at https://laurenhunter.net.
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All the leading voices agree — online church services are not just recording church. So then, what is online church? Here are some of the best principles experts agree on about how to think of online church.
Most of us have visited a new church for the first time. It’s a unique experience and one that many churches struggle to perfect. Thinking through each step that affects a newcomer can be tricky, especially if you have been part of the church for years and know everything there is to know.
Leadership Network is hosting the Metaverse Summit on May 18, 2022. The online event is available with free registration.
According to event organizer, Jeff...
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