Catching up with friends and family  always brings a bombardment of questions about my recent move to Chicago and my new job.  As a church audio engineer, the one question I get A LOT is “what is it with churches trying to be cool and hip with their use of technology all of a sudden?” I can see where they are coming from.  Walking into a local mega church can be confusing.  The experience for non-church goers can be like a mashup of a rock concert and Ted talk. Special events at the most advanced churches are bordering vegas show level production.  Many are indeed confused with modern church’s use of technology and social media.  Some say it is the church’s desperate attempt to remain relevant. “Isn’t the gospel enough?” they protest.

Some offer the great commission as their primary argument for the church going big with technology (google “Digital Missions”).  I would like to offer a different argument for churches to embrace technology. The great commandment.  Love.

Here are 5 ways the church loves through technology:

1.  Streaming.  Internet live streaming loves the church attender.  It is a great tool to extend your church services and events outside of the physical church building.  Folks who are sick can tune in from home, and people who are traveling can keep up with the latest series.  These are great benefits for church regulars. Live streaming also loves the church seeker.  Streaming provides a low pressure gateway for those who would like to check out your church without the intimidation of going to a big huge place for the first time (or a small place where everyone will ask them to stand and give their name and credentials).  The hard work and thoughtfulness of a live stream can go a long way to introduce and connect people to your local body of Christ.

2.  Big Data. Collecting data about the people you want to reach through your ministry gives churches important information about their local, national, and global community. Why make guesses or assumptions about your community, when you can have certainty about what’s important to them?  Churches collect their data through email marketing, social media campaigns, polls, and surveys.  These resources can help churches shape programming quickly.  Churches can now make adjustments to reflect what their community cares about and needs.  Then, analytics allow churches to measure their impact and reach.  Churches can know exactly how they are doing at loving people.  You can’t improve what you can’t measure.  At least not efficiently and effectively.

3.  Multi-site & simulcast church model allows churches to expand their reach while remaining local and small in feel.  Getting a smaller church feel is important to many people who have difficulty finding community in large crowded mega churches.  A small local church ensures that someone knows your name.  It means you can find friends and community groups faster.  It means you don’t  have to travel far from where you live.  It means you will likely be attending church with your actual neighbors (with whom you practice the great commandment). Many churches encourage us to live life in community, multi-site and simulcast build that motto into their structure. 

4.  Big Screens and Loud Sound.   I know, I know, you want to go to church, not a live concert. You don’t know why there are huge screens and speakers coming at you from everywhere.  Trust me, many churches have integrated modern Audio-Visual systems because they love you.  Most church buildings were not designed with the congregation experience in mind.  Many have poor sight lines and terrible acoustics. If you are siting in the back you can’t see the pulpit. If you are too far left, you can’t hear the worship leader or the pastor. Modern AV systems assist the artist and audience engagement through a range of music, dance, and other artistic expressions of worship while providing high intelligibility of spoken word.  The big screens and loud sound systems ensure that every person in the room can hear and see.

5.  Social Media is a means to engage people beyond Sunday and beyond the four walls of the church.  The content your church produces can spark on-going conversation, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  Your members can respond to and share your content with their networks, thus extending your church’s reach.  That awesome point in the sermon, that song that speaks to someone’s experience. They can be shared over and over through likes, retweets, and re-blogs, for weeks and months after the service has ended. There is also now a record that people can search for, bookmark, and come back to, all online. These days you don’t even have to be at a computer, you can create and access social media from the phone in your pocket. The voice of the church is badly needed on the walls of social media.  We can love our neighbors online everyday through social media.

Whether you loath or embrace these changes in technology use in the church, these are just the tip of the iceberg.  Technology is advancing pretty fast.  Remember, we don’t have to look at it as solely a new way to “reach” the next generation or to stay relevant.  If we really think about the ways “loving your neighbor” is changing in this day and age, you might be able to come up with new ways to love with technology.  Any ideas?