To Engage, or Not To Engage: That Is The Question

I know quite a few people who are heavily invested in social media as Christians.  If you filter through their posts, you will see their Christian faith coming out, whether by quoting Bible verses, advertising things that their community of faith are doing, or simply showing how God continues His activity in their lives.  These are great things, and in some cases, I am actually envious of how open and up-front they are about things.

I also know any number of people who are quite limited in their social media activity.  They may have an account or two, but use them sparingly.  You may not find much evidence of their Christian faith in their posts, but their posts are fairly sparse to begin with.  I actually find myself amazed when I see some of them post, as it is so rare that I wonder what brought them to the point of actually signing in and posting.

What defines how much you post on your social media?  Since you are reading this blog, I will admit that you are already one who is likely active with social media and who looks to utilize it.  More likely than not, the people who rarely post will not see this and thus, will have a limited thought on it.  Those who choose not to utilize social media will surely not even know that I have typed up these words, much less have a thought on them.  That's somewhat of a sobering thought, too.

Why do you choose to engage with social media?  What are the benefits you see in its use?  On the other hand, what are the limitations you find with your use?  You might say that a benefit is that you connect with more people, but a limitation could be that you spend less time face to face with those around you.  Or, you may say that a benefit is that people see your faith as an active thing, but a limitation is that the words are open to misunderstanding and even ridicule.  Do you delete a negative post, or let it remain?  If so, why do you do what you do?

You may notice that I am asking more questions than I am providing answers.  That's because I truly do believe that social media use is up to the individual.  I will not belittle anyone for using it or not using it.  I may challenge someone who perhaps makes too much of it, where it may interfere with things like family life and thus detract from that most important vocational responsibility, or I may question what a particular post is saying.  I will not belittle anyone for actually using social media, though.

Why have you chosen to engage with social media?  I think it's an important question for you to ponder, and you may find that engage with it for reasons that you may not even have really thought of before.  Perhaps giving your use that critical look will help focus what you do with it, or you may find that you are doing exactly what you hope to do.  Either way, I hope that taking some time to reflect on it will deepen your understanding of what you hope to accomplish through your engagement with social media.

Social Media and the Gospel

When I first started attending seminary as a student back in 1997, the internet was a largely unknown place.  The year before, I remember my AOL disk arriving in the mail, and I thought I would try it out.  Over the next few years, I started to learn about things like chat rooms and the like.  I have to admit that surfing the net sure wasn't in the picture, as businesses hadn't really learned the power of this new thing (new to most of us at that time). Mainly, I met a few new people, occasionally talked with them, but overall, found it to be rather boring, since I didn't know them.

Flash forward a couple of decades, and everyone (it seems) is now connected virtually all the time via their phones.  Not only that, but the scope and reach of their thoughts and words can now touch countless people at practically any time.  We've gotten used to words such as tweet and post without having to explain them.  We can pin items, snap pictures to chat, and all sorts of other things.

Social media is now a given.  Many Christians also make extensive use of it. In fact, I would dare say that most Christians regularly use at least one or two of these social media sites frequently each day.  The real question that we are looking at today is, what is the message that we convey through our use of social media?  Let me give you some brief examples to consider.

Take a Christian who is highly engaged in political discussions.  He posts frequently his unwavering support of his candidate, even when that candidate's character may be found lacking.  Seems harmless, right?  However, those who read what he posts and know that he is a Christian potentially could see what he posts as though God doesn't really care about character matters of leaders, or that character even matters.  He may come across as though he's okay with the sins of people whose values reflect those that align with his, but obeying God's will and law is optional as long as they agree with his values.

Or, consider the Christian who only posts items that show her family as though everything is always good.  The pictures are always of the family smiling, the posts show how great her kids are, and if you read through her history, it seems like they are the example of the perfectly happy family.  How many people may read through what she puts out there and git the false sense that being a Christian means that everything is always cheery and upbeat?  When their life doesn't reflect that, they may wonder about their faith.

For our final example, consider the Christian whose posts show the full spectrum of what is happening in life.  He posts some things of joy, but others of struggles and hardships that he faces.  He is open when he doesn't know what is happening, or when his life with Christ ebbs and wans.  This person shows what is "normal" for most people.  He may post things that are completely unrelated to his faith, while other things may be deeply faith related.  He addresses all of life with what he puts out there, and in doing so, may give a picture that being a Christian is openly involved in the world around him, and his faith informs him on these things.

Now, I am not going to say that you are wrong if you do some of these things.  The thing I most encourage you to do is to read through the items you post and consider the message that you are conveying through those posts.  Are they what you would hope they would be?  I even suggest that you ask some of your followers or friends what "image" you are conveying, and take their responses seriously.  More than anything, simply look at what you are doing and see if it fits with what you want others to see of you.

Observations from a Technology/Social Media Challenge

Yesterday, I posted at length about a challenge to see how you use technology and social media for a day.  I did this myself, and wanted to share some of what happened on my part.

First, simply as a result of knowing that I was keeping a record, I noticed that I had a tendency to want not to use some of the various media and technologies that I typically do.  Where I might typically spend more time looking over a website, say, one of my Dallas Cowboys, I noticed that I would spend less time reading and browsing over it than I normally would.  The same goes for the two games that I will often find a few minutes to play (these two are a Mahjong game and one of those popular matching games, called Homescapes).  Instead of spending more time on them, I found that I wasn't quite as keen in playing them, knowing that I would be putting my usage out there for whoever to read.

Overall, my day demonstrated a marked lower usage of technology and social media overall, around a whole hour less usage.  Yes, I still had to use my computer while at work, but I devoted my time much more to getting work done and less surfing the web.  While I tend to have my Twitter feed open, I also spent less time reading over it (15 total minutes on the day today).

One thing that I typically make a very intentional effort to do is to put away my phone when I get home.  That was the same today.  From my time arriving at home until the kids are asleep, I usually only check my phone about 2-3 times total, and that stayed the same.  I truly believe in having face to face time with them and my wife, without any screen interruptions.  So that is something that I intentionally do no matter what.

My evenings are often spent checking Facebook for about 15 minutes, then putting my blog entry and my daily Facebook post together.  That is going to be the same tonight.  Some evenings, I will give myself a little time to play my phone games, and other nights, I focus on reading to continue my learning.  Tonight is going to be an evening where I look over some items for the congregation at which I worship for Sunday, as I will be leading a service at an assisted living center during the Sunday School hour.  Then I will devote a few minutes to deciding which book to start next for my continuing education.  So tonight, I anticipate about another 15-20 minutes of social media/game usage.

The main point from yesterday that I wanted to emphasize was simply checking to see if your usage matched what you thought it would be.  In my case, I am sure that I used less today than I normally do, simply because I was aware that I was doing so.  I also noticed that I did not miss that time that I usually spend on it.  While I am far from a social media junkie, I realize that even that extra hour or so in the day could be put to far better use, far more than in me spending it on myself.

What were your observations, if you participated in the challenge?  If you didn't, what do you suspect you might discover?  What is keeping you from recording your technology and social media usage?  

Rethinking the Prayer Chain

Many of you who are Christians and are associated with a congregation are probably familiar with the idea of the prayer chain.  It's this series of links that, when someone has need of prayers, the request is sent out, and makes its way through the whole series of links, so that everyone can be praying for the individual in need of prayers. 

In a former day and age, this prayer chain was often accomplished by means of the telephone.  One person would call three others, each of those three would call three others, and in a few short calls, the prayer request would be in the hands of everyone.  The only problem came when people weren't home to answer their phones.  Then, those further down the chain might have to wait a while to hear.

Now, enter the world of social media and instant messaging that we live in today.  Sure, there is still a place for the phone chain, as there are many people who still prefer to be contacted via their home phone.  However, the means of sharing those same requests have multiplied.  How does your congregation do in terms of making use of these different forms of media to communicate things like prayer requests?

Currently, I'm looking at developing a three pronged approach at our local congregation.  One aspect of it will be the traditional telephone tree.  Another part of it will be utilizing the congregation email address in order to send out a message via email.  The third part of it would consist of a text message burst to those who choose to receive their messages and alerts in such a fashion.

When God allows such impactful technology to be created, often the church is the last place to make use of it.  However, in this instance, it truly seems like we could greatly benefit from utilizing such resources in the sharing and aid of the kingdom of God.  Imaging getting a text message requesting prayers, and at that moment, you are able to take a few moments of silence to pray for that individual.  Imagine that a family has had a catastrophe happen, and you get the message, and within a short time, you are able to provide for their needs in some form, along with many others of your brothers and sisters.  That's when technology truly benefits God's people.

Faith and Technology: Communication

Imagine that you were living back in the B.C. times.  You wanted to find out how a family member was doing in a distant village, let's say about 150 miles away.  What are your options for being in touch with that person?  Pretty much, you have two options.  You can travel there yourself, or you can write a letter (assuming you are one of the literate people of the time).  Those are pretty much your options.

Now contrast that with today.  If you want to get in touch with the person on the floor above you, you can do any of the following: call them on their landline, call them on their cellphone, text message them, email them, facebook them, walk upstairs to see them, or have a memo sent to them.  So many more options to communicate with others today than some 2,000 years ago.

The ability to communicate well and rapidly has changed the world.  Think of it from this perspective.  If you had to write a letter, and that was your only real means of communication with someone far away, you would probably take your time to write out what you are thinking.  You'd make sure that you used appropriate words to convey what you wanted to say, perhaps thinking them through before you put them down on paper (after all, no erasers yet!).  You would probably add anything extra in that you could, since it might be some time before you wrote another one, or when you would hear back from this person.

Again, contrast that with today.  How many times have you sent off an email or a message to someone, and then a few minutes later, realized that you forgot to include something?  So you easily sent off another message.  Or how many times did you quickly write something out, only to have the other person misunderstand what you said because you didn't take a great deal of care in choosing your words? 

I would imagine that most Christians would look at communication technology and say that it is a good thing.  I would heartily agree with them.  One of the things, however, that I see as a weakness with this rapid ability to communicate is that we tend to give less thought and care to the words we use.  And that can have some fairly dramatic impact.

Communications technology is a very useful thing for sharing our faith and growing in our faith.  Just think, you can email your pastor or someone who can help you answer a question about your faith and get an answer back fairly quickly.  That's a good thing.  But then, also think about this.  You get upset at someone who shares your faith with you, and rather than waiting for things to cool down, you zip off an email to them to explain how upset you are and why.  They receive it, perhaps misunderstanding a few things you say, and suddenly the situation is worse.  Now a lot more hurt feelings and matters of forgiveness need to be dealt with.

One other thing that I can see as dangerous with our current communications technology is that it has greatly impacted our ability to actually talk to people face to face.  I see it happen where people get so used to zipping off a brief idea or two that they lose the ability to relate to people beyond a mere idea or two.  Just think about the impact that this can have when we Christians start to lose our ability to talk with and interact with one another.

I am a huge proponent of communications technology.  I do also think that we all would be better served by, at times, slowing ourselves down and thinking about how this technology impacts our lives and our faith.

Faith and Technology: Sound and Sight

If you happen to venture into a larger church facility for worship, you probably expect that the pastor or worship leader will be wearing a microphone.  You'll also have speakers which convey that voice around the sanctuary so that the speaker can be heard throughout, and perhaps those speakers are also wired in to whatever musical instrument is being used for the music of the worship service.

Most of us would hardly blink an eye at this kind of technology.  We see the rationale for making use of it, and, for the most part, adopt it whole-heartedly.  It just makes sense, and it doesn't seem to detract from what happens during our worship times (except for those times when it chooses not to work!).

However, throw up a screen and a projection system, and suddenly, there are many who would say that you have crossed the line.  I've heard some of the arguments against such technology in a worship setting, and I've heard some of the arguments for such technology.  But it seems that, where sound technology is viewed as good and right, sight technology is a much more mixed bag.

I've thought long and hard on this, and I understand a bit of both sides of the argument.  When you have sight technology like screens and projectors, the "entertainment" factor of seeing images that are intended to add meaning to the message can easily slip into the object to which people pay attention.  Images that enhance the message being proclaimed are good.  Images that become the focal point instead of the message are not so good.

And yet, much research has been done to demonstrate that we humans tend to be visual and sound learners.  When you only hear something talked about, you retain a fairly small percentage of what you heard.  When you see something, you retain a higher percentage.  When you both see and hear, you retain almost 80% of what you see and hear!

The reason that this is so controversial to many is that it seems that the technology is taking the place of the Holy Spirit and His work.  If we rely upon the technology to bring about change in the life and faith of those who gather, then we have gone too far.  That is something that the Bible says only the Holy Spirit can do.  Only the Holy Spirit can create and nurture faith. 

At the same time, it's also important that we remember and take to heart the things we see and hear during our worship times.  While the Holy Spirit works as the words are heard, if we leave the worship time and really take nothing away with us, sure, our faith may have been strengthened while we listened, but the Holy Spirit is also about transforming our lives.  If we hear and walk away unchanged, well, the Bible says that is a pretty futile thing.

So I close with this thought today.  When Jesus was speaking many of His parables, it's likely that there were some of those very objects around as He spoke.  For example, as He gave the parable of the sower, one can almost picture a man with his bag of seed, tossing it into the ground.  The listeners could hear Jesus talk about the seed that landed on the path, or among the rocks, and see the sower in the distance, knowing that those same things were happening over there.  That image would help the story and its meaning stick with them even better than if Jesus had just spoken to them in a sterile environment.

I also was reading a book written by one of my seminary professors recently (That I May Be His Own, by Dr. Charles Arand), who talked about the reason that Martin Luther included woodcuts in his catechisms.  The purpose of the woodcuts was to enable people to better remember what they were learning.  Luther basically asserted that we people remember better when we have something to see that ties in with what we are learning, and that we should adopt these kind of things to better enhance our learning. 

It seems that images and teaching/preaching are made to fit together.  Of course, you always have to be cautious that the image doesn't overwhelm the message, but when the image(s) enhance the message and make it more memorable, then, it seems, we have hit upon something that fits with how God made us as humans.

Faith and Technology: Drawing Lines

A lot of medical technology is of the type that causes Christians to wonder where lines need to be drawn.  For example, this morning, I was watching our local news.  They have that little line of constant news at the bottom, and one of the flashes that came across it talked about the supposed successful use of embryonic stem cells to restore some people with a degenerative eye condition.  I would imagine that this is viewed as a great success in the medical community, as one of their theories may seem to be in the process of being proven.

And yet, I still find myself uncomfortable with that.  Really, it boils down to one word in the above paragraph that makes me uncomfortable.  Embryonic stem cells.  In other words, to bring about healing in these people, a life was cut short before it even grew large enough for the mother to know or to feel.  For some reason, the medical community has seized upon the thought that embryonic stem cells are the solution, and not other stem cells, which can be found in the body. 

Here is where I find one line that most Christians will probably agree with.  If the saving or healing of another person comes at the expense of another's life, then I have a serious problem.  This is why so many in the medical community don't look at an embryo as a living being.  It soothes their consciences that they are doing something for the good of mankind, and not at the cost of a living being.

I will admit that there are many lines in terms of medical technology that are difficult to define.  Surgery seems to be a very acceptable use of God's creativeness and healing.  Most treatments don't cross over into us "playing God", but make use of God's creativeness.  And yet, every once in a while, as a Christian, I find myself uneasy when I hear of some new breakthrough.  But in general, one fairly firm line that I draw is that of not taking a life to save or restore another person's life.

I realize that this is not going to be a consistent line among Christians, and then among people who have different faiths and beliefs than we do.  But I also think that failure to discuss it leaves a great deal more confusion out there.

Faith and Technology: Health Concerns

When I started out on this Faith and Technology series, I knew that there was a lot of ground to cover.  What I didn't foresee was that there are so many fairly technical points, which, if I were to take time to spend on each one, would lead to an endless series.  So for the sake of keeping things brief and moving forward, I'm trying to summarize some of these as well as I can.

In previous posts, I have dealt with some issues concerning the beginning of life.  Now, let's move into some of the ways that our faith and technology impact our lives from the time we are born through the time that we age.  Again, I'm not putting these thoughts out here as "this is the right or wrong way", but rather, to cause us to think about how our faith impacts our use of technology.

One thought that I have already raised deals with the proper balance between God's gift of creativeness and taking that creativeness too far.  To start off, I'll simply put before you a couple of circumstances to think about.

A person is born with poor eyesight.  Is it God's design that this person cannot see well, and so is introducing glasses or contacts to this person making use of God's creativeness, or stepping over the boundaries?  To take it to the next step, what about laser surgery to correct their vision?  If someone in the future invented a bionic eye, has that gone too far?

Here's a second type of scenario to think about.  A person has a heart attack.  Has God given us the creativeness and technology to map out the surgical process to restore that person's heart, or even to replace it, or have we stepped beyond God's plan and design for life by artificially adding to that person's life? 

One last one for today: A family declares that they firmly believe that God alone should decide if their child should be healed of a treatable disease.  So they refuse medication for the child under the belief that, if God wants the child to be healed, He will heal the child.  Are they correct or wrong to have such a belief?  Why do you answer that question the way you do?

As you think about these scenarios, I hope it brings a little more clarity to the way you approach the balance of God's creativeness and when we cross over to "playing God" with our technology.

Faith and Technology: Beginnings

I figure that it's time to start moving on toward other places where our faith impacts our view and use of technology, but today we'll wrap up some of my thoughts about reproduction/creation, technology, and faith.  I want to remind everyone that the purpose of these is not so much to say what is right or wrong, but to simply demonstrate how our faith and beliefs do indeed impact the roads that we take in life when it comes to technology.

Today I want to start off with a statement that may not seem that profound, but it really is.  No life begins without God being a part of it.  Whether that life begins in a loving interaction between faithful spouses who engage in the action of love that leads to procreation, or whether that life begins via needles and sterile environments, no life finds its beginning without God.  Even if we may choose technological means that may go beyond the bounds of what God would deem appropriate, no life begins without God being involved.

That demonstrates to us that every single life is a precious gift from God.  Even if we engage in blatantly sinful actions which create life, the life thus created is a gift from God.  And since we each have a sinful nature with us at every moment of every day, that also means that no life is created without the influence of sin (yes, even in the most loving of marriages).

This points us directly to the grace of God.  God gives even when we don't deserve.  We may go beyond His desires and designs of life, but those still do not take us away from the reach of His grace.  We may, regrettably, turn away from His grace, or even think of His gifts of grace as a burden, but even that cannot remove us from the reach of His grace.  That grace is ours because of Jesus' death and resurrection, and our corresponding faith in God's gracious action for us.

There are certain parts of reproductive technology that make me uncomfortable.  There are some parts that I really do not know what God's desire and design is.  I recognize that, no matter what my thoughts are (or what yours might be), not a single one of these thoughts or actions can remove us from God's grace in Jesus.  In Jesus, we are completely forgiven.  Our faith connects that forgiveness to us.  So, while we may go beyond wise boundaries when it comes to this particular component of technology (and really, all the other areas of technology), we never go to a place where God's grace cannot reach us, and where God cannot redeem us.  And this is truly a reason to give thanks.

Faith and Technology: Eggs, Sperm, and Fertilization; Oh my!

As we think about our faith and how it impacts the way we think about reproductive technology, I need to say once again that I firmly believe that life begins when a sperm and an egg come into contact with one another.  At that point, the process of life gets underway and, if not interrupted, leads to a full, living being.  This is why I consider that point the beginning of life.

I realize that there are a number of things that can interfere with this process actually taking place.  A woman's body may not produce eggs, or eggs of sufficient quality to create and sustain life.  A man's sperm may not be properly produced, or may have some kind of defect that prevents life from being formed.  There may even be other factors to take into account beyond these fairly simple ones.

So then, what do we as humans do?  Well, this is where we face a number of different thoughts that our faith has a direct impact on.  For beginners, do we believe that God is the creator and designer of our bodies, which means that they are the way that God intended for them to be, or do we believe that God has also given us our minds in order to figure out how we can "make" our bodies work the way that most typical bodies do?  As a fairly benign example, if God created me with poor eyesight, am I going beyond God's design and desire if I wear glasses or contacts?  While this issue may not have the depth of the fertility issue, the path our thinking takes us down in this example will also be a factor in the reproductive one.

Another consideration we have to ponder is how God may have given us natural "elements" to help bring bodies back into line.  As an example of this, we have penicillin in the world.  We have discovered that it helps to battle infections.  If we make use of penicillin to combat our diseases, are we going against God's design, or are we using our minds in a way that God would approve of?  As this relates to fertility, if there are certain herbs, vitamins, or compounds that can help bring a body back in line, can we do so without damage to our conscience?

Getting a little deeper, we have to ask ourselves how far we can go down this road before we start slipping on the slope and falling over the edge.  Has God given us knowledge of the body and surgical tools to make use of, or are they going against the way He designed us?  If we say that He wants us to make use of these gifts, then just how far do we go before we seem to be taking "life" (and by life, I mean not only life and death, or reproduction, but wholeness and health as well) out of God's hands and putting it into our own?  If surgery to remove a ruptured spleen is okay, how about the removal of a brain tumor that would have led to death?  Or how about the "prodding" of an egg out of the ovary?  Or the insertion of sperm via medical means to optimize the chance of becoming pregnant?

I hope you realize that these answers do not come easily, and it is pretty much impossible to separate our faith life from what we think is acceptable in these practices.  We'll keep talking about this as the series continues.

Faith and Technology: The Creation of Life

I recognize that, in general, people don't all agree on the point at which life begins.  A majority of Christians hold to the belief that life begins at the point of conception, when the sperm and egg are joined.  The Bible gives some credence to this belief, as it talks about God knowing us from the time when we were conceived, when we were in our mother's womb.  As a Christian, I hold to this particular belief.

The point that is important regarding today's post is that your view on what kind of technology is or is not acceptable regarding the beginning of life will be greatly impacted by what you view as the beginning of life.  For someone who believes that life begins when the child is born, then there tend to be fewer issues regarding the creation of life.  For someone who believes that life begins at conception, a whole different set of issues presents itself.

The core of the many differences that come between people's disagreement on fertility issues, in vitro issues, and abortion issues revolves primarily around when people see life beginning.  If life doesn't begin until later, then there are relatively few qualms about what happens to embryos in cold storage, or aborted because they may have problems in life.  If you hold to the view that life begins at conception, then you start to see these same issues, not as quality of life, but in light of God's command that we not take a life, even if that life may not be perfect once it arrives in this world, or even if it isn't convenient for us.

At least for this week, we'll be looking at how our faith relates to some of these issues.  Above all, I simply want to have us think about how our particular belief in the creation of life shapes how we view where technology is a good, helpful thing, and where it crosses over to have us "play God" in a sense.  As always, I welcome your thoughts and discussion on these topics.

Faith and Technology: Some Initial Medical Thoughts

One area where faith and technology frequently find themselves meeting is in the field of medicine.  Today, our medical technology can do some truly outstanding things.  We have research into things that help our bodies grow and be strong and healthy.  We have research into drugs to combat pain and disease.  We have research that seeks to understand how we think, and how we react to different stimuli in our environment.  We have research on the development of a child (of which I have become even more knowledgeable of late!).  And we have abundant research on extending life.

I realize that I could easily become rather long-winded in this post, so for the sake of brevity, we will be spending a fairly considerable amount of time on this topic of faith and medical technology.  In many respects, this is where much of the rubber of our faith hits the road.  Here is where we see examples that impact our lives in dynamic ways, and even in ways that amount to life and death decisions.  That alone makes it a topic worth discussion.

As I've mentioned in a few previous posts on this topic, technology isn't confined to electronic, technical things.  When you think of it, eyeglasses are technology that allows us to see better.  Even the types of shirts, shorts, socks, and shoes that I wear when I run involve technology, such as wicking sweat away, preventing blisters, cushioning for the foot, and such things.  Even our soaps and shampoos nowadays are technologically created to add scents, to combat germs, and other such things.  All of these affect us in a way related to the medical world.

Over the next number of posts, some will be simply bringing awareness of how much technology, creativeness, and innovation has infiltrated our world and life and existence.  Others will bring up controversial topics, to which I will give my two cents.  One thing that I hope you realize as you follow along is that these things are rarely black and white issues, but introduce the opportunity for us to think about how our faith impacts the use and expectations of technology around us.

Faith and Technology: When Technology Assists Faith

Those of you who read this blog are very likely to be somewhat regular in your attendance at worship services at your local congregation.  I applaud you for that, and want today's post to reflect how technology has enabled the way we worship together when we have our regular gatherings.

First, you probably go to a building.  You might not think about it often, but just think of the technology involved to enable you to have a place to go to worship.  Technological innovation in building materials, in structures, in electricity, and in plumbing have all contributed to assist you in the growth of your faith.  We so often take these things for granted that we don't even think of them as technologically driven.

Then, think of the area where you worship.  Some of you probably gather in a sanctuary, while others may simply gather together in a larger room or in an auditorium.  Some sit in chairs, while others sit in pews.  Once again, we rarely think of the technological innovation that went into these things.  If you sit in a modern chair, it's likely a product of the study of how to best support your body, with materials that have been combined to create strength with a minimum of weight.  Others may sit in old-fashioned wooden pews, but even their creation is a product of the innovation of hammers, nails, saws, and then the creativeness of those who first fashioned them.

As you worshiped, some of you may have used hymnals or booklets or paper folders.  I've already talked before about these kind of technological innovations, which came into being about 500 years ago and were new technology at the time.  Others may have watched and read from screens, with the words and images projected up by fairly modern technologies.  (And a few of you may even have watched a worship service over the internet, yet another innovation.)  In all these instances, technology is assisting with the growth of your faith.

So technology can be useful in helping us grow in our faith.  There can be dangers of these, such as when we make the method of distributing God's Word more important than the fact that it is God's Word of forgiveness, hope, and renewal that we are to distribute.  However, when properly used, technology can be a tremendous help in growing us in our faith.

Faith and Technology: Crossing the Line

If you have been keeping tabs on this series of posts that I have been writing, you may have noticed that I tend to believe that God gave us minds and the ability to be creative and to invent technologies that can aid and assist us in life.  I firmly believe that these abilities are gifts from God, and that He does intend that we grow and expand our knowledge and understanding of this world we live in, and thus, that we also expand our ability to examine that world and the life we live.

However, you don't have to look very far to see that not all Christians believe this.  Take, for example, the Amish.  They believe that a lot of modern day technology is counter to their faith.  So they live fairly simple lives without the hassles and pressures that electrical devices and the like introduce into life.  And many people applaud them for such a stance.  I, however, would point out that even simple things like clothes are technological innovations.  After all, Adam and Eve weren't created with clothes, but they came later.  I could also point out how it was a technological innovation to work with metal and steel, to make plows from the wood of trees, and the like.  So much for a technology-free society.

I would also, however, argue that technological innovations can cross the line and go too far.  Anytime we start to cross the line to deciding how life is created, or how to extend life beyond the limits that God has set, I believe that we start to "play God" and break the first and foremost commandment, that of not having any other gods.  You can rest assured that I will be talking about some of these in upcoming posts, so I won't get into specifics today.

In a way, this isn't really about technology.  It's about us humans deciding that we can do things either without God, or better than God, or in the place of God.  Technology simply happens to be the instrument or tool that we use to gain such control.  If we can't do it naturally, then why not go beyond what is natural?  That's the mindset of many people today, and I have to say that it is frightening if we follow that line of thinking out.

To wrap this up, I also think that it is difficult to determine where this line gets drawn.  Plus, trying to get two or three people to agree on where exactly that line should be drawn is a process that leads only to frustration.  But we will take a look at some of these questions and engage in discussion in coming posts.

Faith and Technology: Continued

Hi everyone,

Well, I blogged last week and told you of my intentions to be very regular about posting on here each day.  I even went so far as to say in last Tuesday's post that I would be continuing the Faith and Technology series the next day.  Well, that was before something happened that didn't exactly prevent me from blogging, but would have made it quite a task to accomplish.

I went to visit my family, and because of their location, the only internet connection that doesn't cost an arm and a leg is a dial-up connection.  (Yes, I realize that most of you who read this regularly probably just gasped, or started to wonder if there still is such a thing as dial-up.  Let me assure you, there is!)  This introduced a bit of a problem for me.  After all, most web pages now have so much content that a dial-up connection takes a long time to download all the information, and then just as long to upload it.  What this amounts to is that I didn't blog simply because I didn't want to wait as long as it would have taken.

Which brings me to this thought for today.  Isn't it amazing how we start to take for granted the good things that God gives to us, especially when it comes to technology?  I truly believe that God gave us minds to come up with these technological innovations, but, just like God's grace, it becomes very easy to take them for granted.  We start to expect better and faster, rather than simply appreciating the fact that we have what God has provided.  And that gets into a dangerous area for us, since it puts us in a position where we think that we can demand from God, just like we demand better and faster from our internet providers.

Technology, like grace, can be taken for granted.  And every once in a while, we need the reminder that technology is a gift, and that we should be thankful for what we have, even if it is slow like a dial-up connection. 

Faith and Technology: What is the point of technology?

Here in North America, it really seems that we have this desire to have the newest and the latest thing in technology.  When the iPhone was introduced, it seemed like many people rushed out to get it.  Same thing with the iPad.  Now there are TVs with internet capability, and I find myself wanting to go out and get one. 

In part, I think that this is the way that God made us.  I really don't believe that the world would have simply remained static had Adam and Eve not fallen into sin.  Since God is a creative God, and He told His creation to continue that creativeness, I believe that we humans would have continued to be creative when it came to this world.  Would that mean that we would have the same things?  Perhaps not.  But I do believe that we would have continued to demonstrate that creativeness.

Which brings me to the point of this blog post.  What is the point of technology?  Is technology simply a continuation of the creativeness that God has put in us?  Or, now that we live in a fallen, sinful world, is the point of technology to overcome our need for God?  For example, do we continue to seek advances in medicine because we want to overcome death and illness, in a way, overcoming our need for God?  If so, we're not doing so hot at that.  Or, is technological advancement both a reflection of the creativeness that God has put in us, but a trait that is, sadly, tainted by sin and therefore, in some ways, both self-serving and a demonstration of our creativeness?

How we answer these kind of questions has a great deal of impact on faith matters.  If technology is an outflow of our God-given creativeness, then we will tend to focus on the benefits, even though they are tainted by our sinfulness.  If technology is a way to declare that we have no need of God, then suddenly nothing is off-limits.  I would be greatly interested to know how many people think about this.

Faith and Technology: So what exactly is "Technology"?

In one of my posts last week, I mentioned the invention of the printing press, and how it was a technological innovation that had some far-reaching impacts in our world.  Yet, if you were to compare some of the technological innovations today with the invention of the printing press, you'd probably have a handful of geeks laughing at you.  After all, in today's world, books are old school.  If you don't get your publications via computer or some other electronic version, you seem to be way behind.

Which brings me to an interesting question.  What exactly constitutes our idea of technology?  If a beekeeper designs a new kind of box in which bees make more honey, has that person had a technological innovation?  Or maybe I should ask it in this way.  Do we only associate technology with electricity in our day and age?  If something is invented that increases our abilities to accomplish something, but it doesn't involve electricity, is that really considered a technological innovation?

I realize that, in some circles, asking that kind of question may be along the lines of questioning if the Bible really is the Word of God.  It may seem rather blasphemous.  After all, many of us have now lived in a world with electricity and electronics so long that life without them seems foreign.  It's hard to believe that so many of these things have only come out in the last generation or so.  To think of a room lit only by candles and not by the latest LED, powersaving lightbulbs seems so Middle Ages. 

I would suggest that how we define technology will have some fairly significant impact on our faith life, as well.  If we consider that the development of better ways of understanding communication is a technological innovation, that will impact our belief in the Holy Spirit and His working through God's Word.  If we consider the invention of the printing press as a technological innovation, we probably find the thought of everyone having access to God's Word as a good thing.  If we think that technology and technological innovation goes beyond mere electronic gizmos, it will inevitably have an impact on our faith life in some form or another.

I would actually be interested to know if, first of all, you have ever given any thought as to what constitutes technology, and then, secondly, have you wondered how technology impacts your faith life?  Remember, it can have either good or bad impact upon you, and I am curious to see how you think about such things.

Faith and Technology: The Good With The Bad

Yesterday, I pointed out how Martin Luther made use of the new technology of the printing press in order to let people know more about God, about the Bible, and how to teach the basics of the faith in people's houses.  He wrote a great many essays, letters, and treatises on matters of faith, as well as small books (called catechisms) which were widely distributed to households throughout Germany, and are still widely used in Lutheran congregations still today.

Making use of a new technology to do something like sharing the message of good news through Jesus is a good thing.  In Luther's day, people could now read the Bible on their own rather than just hearing small portions of it every so often.  They could have small booklets to help learn more about their faith, and the important parts of that faith to teach their children.  All good uses of technology.

However, this same technology could also be used for less than desirable purposes.  If you wander into most bookstores these days, not only will you find sections like the kids section and the Christian section, but you can also find those shelves with books that may, on occasion, need to be wrapped in plastic to keep prying eyes from looking.  The same technology that could be used for good can also be used for less than desirable purposes.

Is this the fault of the technology?  No.  In and of itself, the technology is not good or bad.  Books are neither inherently good or bad.  However, the use of the technology can be bent to purposes that may not necessarily be for good.  That will be a theme that you may notice as we go through this series on faith and technology.

In a way, this also relates to our Christian faith.  One of the things that God reveals about us as humans is that we have a sinful nature.  All of us have it, and it leads us to do things that are not necessarily for the good of ourselves and others.  When we add technology to that sinful nature, we see that the opportunity to bend that same technology to sinful uses is a possibility, and one that crops up very frequently.

This means that we recognize the potential for good in technology, but we also don't fool ourselves to its potential to be put to bad or evil uses.  Books that grow us in our faith or that show us better ways of living together in peace are good.  Books that focus on sinful actions and activities, and make these seem common or acceptable, are not good.  Both make use of the technology, and that means that we must also use wisdom when it comes to the use of technology and matters of our faith.

Faith and Technology: A Time of Revolution

For this post, I'm actually thinking back about 500 years.  The printing press had been invented, and some people were just starting to realize the impact that it could have on society.  In particular, a man by the name of Martin Luther, who happened to be a monk, seemed to realize that this new technology had some far-reaching impact when it came to the Christian faith.

Let me say quickly that I'm not here to reacquaint you with the time of the Reformation.  Many, many books have been written about that time and its impact on the world.  Instead, I want to focus on how technology suddenly impacted the Christian faith. 

Martin Luther wrote a great many things.  Some were short letters, others were books that explained parts of the Bible.  Still others were letters to a great many people, explaining what the Bible said about their life, their faith, and how they lived.  Many of these have been compiled into books, and you can probably find a few of them at any local library near you.

Here is where a technological innovation had an impact on faith.  It became much easier to create books.  Rather than having to painstakingly write out each character if you wanted to reproduce a book, the printing press made this much easier.  You could arrange the letters, dip it in ink, and suddenly you had a whole page printed out.  Even better, you could make multiple copies of the same page in a much shorter time than writing out that same page over and over again.

Martin Luther used this technological innovation to his advantage.  Describing just one instance, he had traveled across Germany and noticed that many children and parents did not know the basics of the Christian faith.  So he went to work to create a small booklet on the basics, which has come to be known as Luther's Small Catechism.  Easily reproduced, a copy could be given to each household so that every family could learn the basics of the faith.

This was a daring use of technological innovation, even back in the early 1500s.  Luther published a great number of works through the printing press.  He made use of it to ensure that families could know the basics of their faith.  He also translated the whole Bible into German and then began to pass them out to the people of Germany.  Now the people no longer had to rely only upon the word of their local priest or pastor, but could actually read God's Word at home!

In our day and age, trying to imagine a time with very few books is practically impossible.  We have bookstores all over the place, and books are pretty cheap, too.  Just imagine, though, if the only time you ever heard the Bible was when you attended worship at your local church, and really, the only person who could read was the priest/pastor.  Even though we hardly think of the development of the printing press as a technological innovation, it was one that has truly had a tremendous impact upon the Christian faith.

Faith and Technology: My 200th Post

Today marks a great day for me.  I started this blog up about 10 or 11 months ago, with the goal of trying to blog about 5-6 times a week.  For the most part, I've been able to do that, though there have been trips and vacations and other such things that have gotten in the way on occasion.  So here it is today: my 200th post.

What is amazing to me is how technology has made things like this possible.  I still remember back to my early days in college, when I first received a free AOL disc in the mail and was invited to join the online community.  I remember the sound of my computer dialing up its modem to reach into this thing called the "internet".  I remember having the ability to talk to people in chat rooms and in IMs, and how cool I thought it was at the time.

Technology certainly has made many things more possible than they were before.  I almost shudder at times to think about where things will be in 10 years or 20 years.  The one truth concerning technology is that it is always changing.  So it seems that we must be ready to change as our gadgets and gizmos change almost at the speed of light.

There has been one really good thing about this explosion of technology that I have observed.  It is that we are able to be in touch with our brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus that much easier.  I have websites that I go to in order to look up bible verses with specific words in them.  I have sites that I go to in order to read up on some of the latest thoughts of theologians.  Just a few minutes ago, I downloaded and prepared our worship service's music for tonight, and will have someone pushing play on the computer to deliver the organ music that we will be singing to.  Technology makes it possible to do so many different things that can serve our Lord Jesus and our faith life.

I am thankful for technology.  Yes, I realize that it has its downsides, and we will talk about those in some of the upcoming posts.  As with all things, when technology is put to good use in the right hands, it can be a tremendous blessing.  When in the wrong hands, and with the wrong intents, it can cause severe damage to our society.

My hope is that I always seek to make the good, positive use of technology as it continues to advance forward.