Technology's Skeptics

Lightning speed communication!

The reality is that us westerners are behind the times in cell phone and internet technology.  In contrast the developing nations are exploding with internet and cell phone technology.   I have just learned about "QR codes"... (Thanks Andrew of the A-Team at Central Christian College of the Bible!)

Imagine walking into the church foyer, pointing your smart phone at the kiosk monitor to click on a "QR code" in order to download the day's bulletin and sermon listening sheet. This past Sunday Michael (my preaching intern) helped us set up a gmail account which allowed worship service participants to text in questions during the sermon.  It caught most of us by surprise.  Since I didn't spend much time elaborating on the process most people didn't register it was real time sermon interaction until the sermon was over.   I don't want our worship experience to focus on methods.  But I do want people to catch our urgency about communicating God's word in the "street language" of the day.   That tends to rub people the wrong way, but that's not new.  Did you know the church in 1645 openly condemned the Gutenberg Bible?  Today we beg people bring their Bibles to church and hope they read them everyday.  Back then they feared people would begin to learn the Bible outside the influence of the church.  That was bad for offerings and a feeding frenzy for false teachings.

"Although the printing era was welcomed by most, the Church opposed the technological revolution. Ironically, the Bible was the source of the controversy; the Church feared that the spread of theological learning in the vernacular would result in a loss of power and influence. In 1515, Pope Leo X tried to introduce a censorship and a supervision of printed books."

I remember seeing my first "QR code" and having an annoyed sensation creep into my mind.  (I don't like feeling ignorant, and technology tends to do that regularly.)  But then as soon as I saw the ease of developing a "QR code"  and considered how quickly it can communicate the story of Jesus in a language a new generation loves to use I thought of my blog title, "We see through a glass darkly..."   My darkness got a little brighter today.  I hope your's does too!