Technology and Modern Day Ministry

Whew, can you imagine Simon Peter, saying, hang on Andrew, let me respond to this text message?  Matthew the tax collector asking for the rest of the disciples to hold on ten more minutes because for some reason his Turbo Tax software is not recognizing his printer and won't print!  Or what if Simon the Zealot had the tools of Facebook and Twitter? Sometimes, it seems like I can't live with technology and I can't live without it.  Today has been one of those, I could take it or leave it days, which believe me does not come around very often.  I haven't had major issues, but just the little bumps in the process that wouldn't be there without technology. 

However, to put it in perspective, a hundred years ago you would be receiving this via pigeon or pony express (which was anything but!).  My hand would be cramping from gripping the feather that I continually would have had to dip in indian ink and back to the page.  I would have lost touch with many of you years ago, due to either the enormity of the world and vastness between cities or to the plague, since technology would have not brought us the simple things like vaccines and modern medicines to help us live past thirty.

I guess, all in all, putting it in perspective, technology has brought us some pretty amazing things. It enables me to get out a prayer request to several hundred people in a matter of seconds.  It lets me keep fellowship with people that live more than 100 miles or more away from me.  When I see your status updates, I rejoice with you, empathize with you and pray for you.  I work with a ministry team that lives in another city doing missions that reaches out across the entire world.  I create artwork and resources to be used all over the world for the expansion of God's kingdom.  And depending on my job load, I can respond with something within ten minutes! Yeah, I guess you could say that technology has changed things.  The landscape of modern ministry is different because of it.

So next time you read a status update, don't just think of it as someone's boring dribble.  Ask yourself how God wants you to respond to that invitation into someone's soul. And find a way to be involved with the church from afar, taking the opportunity to be interactive with missionaries in far away lands that would not have even been possible ten years ago!

Technology, I'll take it, speed bumps, frustrations and all.