Technology can be a difficult compromise for Churches. On one hand we have opportunity, on the other we have the metric of change that can be daunting for a Church that has to protect the traditionalism of that which they serve. The religious side to the relationship driven religion is met with peculiarities that did not exist in a 1st century world. Once upon a time we so fights over electricity in our Churches because it was unnatural. So how do we know when a technology is some place that the Church should entertain going to versus staying away. Honestly, this is different for every Church. I would not expect the Amish community to begin livestreaming anytime soon. But there are certainly factors that can be weighed.

Social Media:

There is a Disney song from the Little Mermaid where Ariel is singing about wanting to be like humans. In this song she sings a line “I want to be where the people are.” This is the mentality of social media, you need to be where the people are and like it or not people are using social media. Which platform your Church should connect with depends on which people your Church already has and who your target audience is. You should seek to be authentic in who you are. If your Church is primarily older and you want to target Parents…Meta’s Facebook is probably where you want to be. If your Church has families and you want to reach more families, I would suggest Facebook and Instagram. If your Church has a hopping Young Adult ministry and you want to reach Teens, say hello to TikTok and maybe even Snapchat. Social media should be looked at through the lens of a hunter or chef; guns and knives are not weapons to these professions; rather they are tools and in the right hands put supper on the table. Social media in the right hands is a tool used to set the table for your Church to minister in a digital world.

But when should we not go where the people are? Is there ever a time? Well I think there are probably a few cases that might warrant that, even these examples might have extremes that do not apply though. By and large men should not go to a strip bar and expect to do ministry, it would be a high danger zone. In the digital world there are such caveats as well. Including social media, there are danger zones, there are lines that should not be crossed. Snapchat has this propensity with the disappearing messages and it is a platform I have struggled to encourage because the hard avenues to create accountability. Any platform you engage with you must learn to think the way the platform does so that you can engage users in a safe and ministering way.

Cryptocurrency:

Back in the 80’s and 90’s the Church started having a new phenomon; people were donating their appreciated stocks in order to help with their taxes. The question became what does a Church do with stocks? The answer for most of these Churches was it is better not to bet God’s money and instead of holding these stocks they sold them and took the cash. There is nothing wrong with this. Personally, by and large that is what I would probably recommend. However, none of this is financial advise from me, but rather what I would encourage my own Church to do. I don’t pretend to be a financial expert…I talk about tech.

Which brings us to the next point. Cryptocurrency is a unique part of a puzzle, it has technical implications but also is traded as a valuable. Many people have been wanting to start paying their tithe or gifts in Crypto. Should a Church accept crypto and what should they do with it if they choose to accept crypto currency? Generally speaking Cryptocurrency gains are treated the same way as stocks are, so for an individual taxes are paid on the gains of the crypto when it is sold. As Crypto currency is very volatile it can be difficult to know when to buy and sell especially if you don’t study the market. With that in mind, I don’t believe Churches shouldn’t be accepting Crypto, but I think if a Church does accept crypto they should treat it like a stock and not bet God’s money and cash it out. Again though, this is not financial advise, and your Church should determine if and when to accept such gifts, tithes, and offerings.

Live Streaming

This goes back to who is your Church and who do you intend to reach your Church with. Many Churches took this plunge because of COVID and are now regretting it or trying to decide if they should keep it. Other Churches love having their livestream and have found it is a fantastic ministry that compliments what they are already doing. Why is there such a drastic view about livestreaming? Simply put it is in some Churches DNA and not in others. It is that simple. I think a lot of Churches made assumptions about what a live stream accomplishes or what it would accomplish and it either exceeded those expectations or drastically failed to reach those expectations. This is why we see a rising complaint to do away with live streaming to a model of in person only, Churches that did not achieve a proper expectation are now reeling from the losses that the average Church is experiencing post-covid…many are not returning. For Churches that started livestreaming during the pandemic and are having a failure of expectation they see the livestream as a scapegoat, this is why people do not return to in person worship…they are lazy and want to stay home. This is missing that most of your viewers that did not return probably are not watching your live stream at all and were probably looking for a reason to leave before COVID.

On the inverse of this you have some Churches buckling down on their livestream. Their livestream was so successful that it is they way of the future. As a result they are leaving behind models of in person gathering to better embrace the digital online Church. What these Churches are going to find though is they will neglect their in person at the expense of the online Church because the online Church needs the in person gatherings. As a result the physicality of the Church, the physical care of each other will suffer and the Church that neglects physicality will become spiritually deadened as the entertainment value must continue to duplicate at such a tremendous rate that it eventually devalues itself into a crash.

The answer is to have a healthy approach. I have been dealing with livestreams for almost a decade now. Live Streaming like social media is a tool. There is a growing trend of new visitors that will look to see if you have a live stream and watch it before visiting your Church just like the advent of websites did for Churches. However, a livestream must reflect the DNA of your Church. And I know this is not a popular view, your live stream won’t grow like a viral sensation; but it will grow naturally. This creates two things, one it creates an online campus for those who are not able to attend in person; maybe they are sick bed ridden, or who knows what doesn’t really matter it is a connection. The second is it creates an avenue of introduction for the physical Church, it is the online calling card. So if your Church is full of young people your live stream should reflect what people will find when they attend in person, if it has older people it should reflect that. Do not try to force an appearance other than that which you are because when that visitor comes they don’t want the impression that they were lied to. An online campus should not be a replacement for physical church and physically gathering should not be viewed as a replacement for online gatherings. Instead these should compliment one another.

Metaverse

This is probably the most controversial cutting edge technology I have been asked about lately. It is so new I should probably explain what it is to a degree. Several years ago a few companies came out with gaming that felt like you were in the game, not just playing the game, but you were actively in the games world interacting with it no a sub-physical level. This is known as virtual reality. You have probably seen the big goggles that go over the user’s face. It is a cool and really entertaining way to play a video game.

As this technology progressed, the US government and companies began to ask for special programs to be created to help train soldiers and employees. It was a test pilot program that I’m not sure saw a lot of success except in the air force to some extent. Out of those test programs Facebook (now Meta), who produced Occulus gaming platform, announced that they would be creating something called the metaverse, a virtual reality world where people could live in virtual houses, trade cryptocurriencies, and live a virtual life. There are a few Churches who have brought a virtual church to the metaverse, so that people in this virtual world could attend their services.

So, what about this? Frankly, I believe that it is a tread lightly moment. Does this clash with your Church’s DNA? It is an issue between social media and live streaming. On the one hand you should be where the people are, on the other hand, there is a valid argument borrowed from the scapegoat argument. When users enjoy virtual living better than physical living we risk the Church becoming part of the problem. However, there is a light to this tunnel. If your Church matches this DNA structure, then much like the Church who has married the online campus and physical gather together, you will be able to be the helping hand of Jesus that comes into that virtual world and help guide them back out to a physical world. I’m not advocating for or against these virtual worlds. They can be a great tool, my fear is that we live in a world losing touch with reality without the aid of these virtual worlds…and a virtual world might be all it takes to push people even further from reality. A Church that wants to be successful in the Metaverse will need to find the tangibility of going into a fake place and bringing a very real gospel.