Group Life Conference Follow-Up Post #4

I’ve got one or two more take-aways that I want to share, so here’s the next one:

As Christ followers, we have a tremendous opportunity to use technology to support (start, continue, enhance, …) community!

I am more an more convinced of this all the time. Do I think technology is the end all and be all of community? Well, I hope not. But let me share my observations and thoughts.

1. My buddy Frank helped me sign-up for facebook while I was on the trip just over two weeks ago. Since then, I have reconnected technologically speaking with friends from my neighborhood growing up, my high school, my old churches, my college, my workplace, and even with people from the conference. What a neat tool.

2. We live in a “I want it now”, “Show me something cool” generation. Our churches have the opportunity to use technology to enhance their services, to help with bookkeeping, to help with logistics, to help with initial connections, to help with passing along information,…. We miss the boat if we don’t look into how these things can draw people who are far from God to Him.

3. In my opinion, technology can be the start of community that leads to face-to-face community. For example, over the past year or so, I know that there is a gentleman from our church who has been following my blog. He’s even made comments. Part of me feels like I know who this guy is. The crazy thing is that up until last week, I had never connected his name with his face. Thanks to an introduction, I now know who he is. I look forward to the conversations we will now have not just on-line but now face-to-face.

I’m sure there is so much more that I could share on this subject. Check out my notes from my previous post, and let me know what you think.

Stay tuned…