Re-Envisioning Technology

Today’s technology evolves at a break-neck pace. Many church leaders have mixed thoughts about technological innovation. Few pastors know how to leverage technology to connect with young people who use it. Some even fear this idea.

Leah Archibald is a veteran of the high tech industry and sold IT systems integration software before joining the Theology of Work Project. She believes technology can play a pivotal role in God’s work of reconciliation. Furthermore, she argues church leaders who leverage technology will be rewarded with deeper connections and bigger impact among the people they serve.

In my first professional job, I worked for a digital marketing agency. I ran online teaching events called ‘webinars’ that sold chief technology officers on the benefits of IT integration software. On the surface, there was nothing spiritual about ‘enterprise resource planning.’ It was just a job, I thought, and I often resented my work had no value in God’s Kingdom.

Looking back now, after spending almost as much time writing about the Bible as I did hawking ERP software, I can see the fingerprints of God all over this technology. The software helped people get just the right amount of materials they needed to do their jobs—not too much, not too little, and at exactly the right time.

That helped them fulfill God’s original intention for human work and for creation. God put people in charge of creation in Genesis 1:26, and in Genesis 2:16–17. He instructed them to obey limits in what they take. Good enterprise resource planning helps people do just that. My work marketing ERP software was a small contribution to restoring the world to God’s created order.

Technology Connects

In many different areas of life, technology helps people redeem what’s broken in the world and do the work God created them to do. And technology can be a great way to connect with people in simple, economic, and unobtrusive ways. But there are fears about technology, too, especially within the church.

Wise Christians have known for centuries that it’s important to slow down to connect with God and with other people. With the omnipresence of technology, we’re tempted to check our smartphones every waking moment for the next hit of information. Online social media connects us with people around the globe, but too often at the expense of connections with our neighbors or families right in front of us.

Isaiah 43:5–6 says, “I will gather you and your children from east and west. I will say to the north and south, ‘Bring my sons and daughters back to Israel from the distant corners of the earth.”’ Technology such as satellite telephony, international texting networks, and even emoji programming can be part of God’s redemptive work of bringing people together.

Overcoming the Struggle

The challenge for churches is that many pastors are not technology strategists. They’re trained in teaching, pastoring, and leading a congregation. Mastering new technology can seem like a frustrating distraction. For this reason, churches should team up with savvy technologists who can help them use these mediums to reach people. Large churches may have a digital marketing person on staff. For churches that don’t have that luxury, parachurch ministries can help.

CV North America uses social media and marketing technology to connect people to local churches.

www.Butler.Church provides social graphics and content for churches that do not have a paid staff member to do so.

Christians are increasingly looking to technology to help them grow spiritually and to connect their faith to their work.

The Theology of Work Project, my current employer, helps two million Christians a year apply the Bible to their daily work. Google search is a big driver to theologyofwork.org. This shows that Christians are hungry for help with their work, and they’re going online to find answers.

The church can meet people where they are by learning about today’s technologies and how they connect us. It starts with discerning the positives and negatives in each technology and pursuing how we can use it to further God’s redemptive work in the world.

What are ways you can utilize technology within your congregation?

An Excerpt from the book, “Church for Monday” by Dr. Svetlana Papazov.

Svetlana Papazov is Lead Pastor and Founder of Real Life Church, President/Founder of Real Life Center for Entrepreneurial and Leadership Excellence, a first of its kind model of church and business incubator that educates in entrepreneurship, leadership and faith praxis.