Last week, I had the great pleasure of consulting with a church in Georgia.
During the course of the conversation, there was a reference made to the “21st Century Church.” I honestly don’t know if I said it or she did, but it doesn’t matter. It led me to ask the following question:
What does a 21st Century church look like?
Maybe you envision people entering your church wearing flip-flops, toting their iPhones and grabbing a cup of coffee in your little coffeehouse area. Maybe a Twitter hashtag pops up on the screen (#kickinsermon?) and the congregation is busy looking at their iPhones and Tweeting the pastor’s best soundbites. You’ve got electrifying videos playing, music pumping, lights flashing. New technology everywhere!
Is all of this bad? No. In fact, I wear flip-flops to church. And I like the lights and the music.
Is all of it sustainable? Only for a short time.
Technology changes. Fads come and go.
What if coffeehouses become obsolete and disco clubs make a comeback?!
Churches cannot keep up.
If multi-million-dollar corporations and organizations can’t keep up with ever-changing technologies and fads, churches can’t. By the time you invest your time and energy in one new technology and you finally learn it, there’s a new version. Two years later, it’s obsolete. Maybe even laughable. Anyone buy a laser disc player?
As a marketing professional in the business world, I’m learning weekly about the newest and greatest things — everything from the newest technologies to changing psychologies. Knowing and trying to understand these things is an exciting and, frankly, exhausting part of my job. But in business, it’s integral.
In my role as a church marketing consultant, I get to take a break from that — and do my best to get you to do so as well.
I get to remind you to slow down, stop, take a deep breath and remember what we’re here to do.
Seek God. Love God. Love others. Serve others. Be the Church.
I get to remind you that God has equipped your church with the right people and ample resources to do the work you’re called to do at this moment in time.
For some reason, local churches feel they need the newest things to be viable and relevant.
Am I saying Facebook is evil? No.
Facebook is a great internal communications tool to remind your congregation about the chili cook-off and the Christmas concert.
But how does Facebook feed someone?
How does Twitter give someone a hug?
A new mobile app cannot deliver a casserole to a new mom or collect money to pay an electric bill.
Let me get really radical with you by asking this:
What if we were a First Century Church in the the 21st Century?
Think about it.
What would that look like?
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The first century church looks remarkably like a healthy Faith Family. In my opinion, as I obviously wasn’t alive during the first century. Although some days my back feels about that old.
You’re exactly right. Church definitely happens through the small group. Thanks for he comment!