Moderators Gregory Matthews Posted September 19, 2013 Moderators Posted September 19, 2013 Church Services of The Future PASTOR: "Praise the Lord!" CONGREGATION: "Hallelujah!" PASTOR: "Will everyone please turn on their tablet, PC, iPad, smart phone, and Kindle Bibles to 1 Cor 13:13. And please switch on your Bluetooth to download the sermon." P-a-u-s-e...... "Now, Let us pray committing this week into God's hands. Open your Apps, BBM, Twitter and Facebook, and chat with God" S-i-l-e-n-c-e "As we take our Sunday tithes and offerings, please have your credit and debit cards ready." "You can log on to the church wi-fi using the password 'Lord909887.' " "The ushers will circulate mobile card swipe machines among the worshipers: • Those who prefer to make electronic fund transfers are directed to computers and laptops at the rear of the church. • Those who prefer to use iPads can open them. • Those who prefer telephone banking, take out your cellphones to transfer your contributions to the church account." The holy atmosphere of the Church becomes truly electrified as ALL the smart phones, iPads, PCs, and laptops beep and flicker! "The Final Blessing and Closing Announcements... • This week's ministry cell meetings will be held on the various Facebook group pages where the usual group chatting takes place. Please log in and don't miss out. • Thursday's Bible study will be held live on Skype at 1900hrs GMT. Please don't miss out. • You can follow your Pastor on Twitter this weekend for counseling and prayers. • God bless you and have a nice day. Quote Gregory
Administrators Naomi Posted September 19, 2013 Administrators Posted September 19, 2013 OUCH!! Quote If your dreams are not big enough to scare you, they are not big enough for God
Moderators Gregory Matthews Posted September 19, 2013 Author Moderators Posted September 19, 2013 Quote: maybe in some mega churches that will happen Some is already happenning in the church that I attend! Online paymernt of tithe and/or offerings is already big in the SDA Church in North America. I know of a pastor who tells the people to text him their thoughts during the sermon. Sit in the balcony of a large chruch and observe the number of electronic devices that are being used by the people below. More SDA congregations are live-streaming their services which may be stored in the cloud for later review. Quote Gregory
Ted Oplinger Posted September 19, 2013 Posted September 19, 2013 Quote: maybe in some mega churches that will happen Some is already happenning in the church that I attend! Online paymernt of tithe and/or offerings is already big in the SDA Church in North America. I know of a pastor who tells the people to text him their thoughts during the sermon. Sit in the balcony of a large chruch and observe the number of electronic devices that are being used by the people below. More SDA congregations are live-streaming their services which may be stored in the cloud for later review. I was just about to say that some of your opening thoughts are already occurring. Past and present, I see several in my congregation who use the iPad for both Sabbath School Quarterly and Bible throughout both aspects of church; hymns are already up on the big screen, so hymnals get used rarely. We don't stream sermons just yet, but we are heading that way in the foreseeable future. Quote "As iron sharpens iron, so also does one man sharpen another" - Proverbs 27:17 "The offense of the cross is that the cross is a confession of human frailty and sin and of inability to do any good thing. To take the cross of Christ means to depend solely on Him for everything, and this is the abasement of all human pride. Men love to fancy themselves independent. But let the cross be preached, let it be made known that in man dwells no good thing and that all must be received as a gift, and straightway someone is offended." Ellet J. Waggoner, The Glad Tidings "Courage is being scared to death - and saddling up anyway" - John Wayne "The person who pays an ounce of principle for a pound of popularity gets badly cheated" - Ronald Reagan
LifeHiscost Posted September 19, 2013 Posted September 19, 2013 Stop the world and let me off! God cares! Quote Lift Jesus up!!
Members phkrause Posted September 19, 2013 Members Posted September 19, 2013 Very interesting that's for sure. Quote phkrause When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29;2
Members rudywoofs (Pam) Posted September 19, 2013 Members Posted September 19, 2013 Quote: I see several in my congregation who use the iPad for both Sabbath School Quarterly and Bible throughout both aspects of church.. just out of curiosity, how do you know the people using the iPads are looking at the Quarterly and/or the Bible, and not looking at Facebook and playing Farmville? (okay, the mooing and quacking would probably give it away...) Quote Pam Meddle Not In the Affairs of Dragons; for You Are Crunchy and Taste Good with Ketchup. If we all sang the same note in the choir, there'd never be any harmony. Funny, isn't it, how we accept Grace for ourselves and demand justice for others?
Ted Oplinger Posted September 19, 2013 Posted September 19, 2013 Quote: I see several in my congregation who use the iPad for both Sabbath School Quarterly and Bible throughout both aspects of church.. just out of curiosity, how do you know the people using the iPads are looking at the Quarterly and/or the Bible, and not looking at Facebook and playing Farmville? (okay, the mooing and quacking would probably give it away...) In Sabbath School class...the class is small enough to where when the screen shows, the Quarterly/Bible is plainly visible. In the worship hour, when I am not up front with the service, I sit toward the back...and have a pretty good view of those with phones/iPads showing the Bible, versus those with the A&M football run-up/Farmville/FB.etc., on the screen. Those with the latter are usually visiting students.... Quote "As iron sharpens iron, so also does one man sharpen another" - Proverbs 27:17 "The offense of the cross is that the cross is a confession of human frailty and sin and of inability to do any good thing. To take the cross of Christ means to depend solely on Him for everything, and this is the abasement of all human pride. Men love to fancy themselves independent. But let the cross be preached, let it be made known that in man dwells no good thing and that all must be received as a gift, and straightway someone is offended." Ellet J. Waggoner, The Glad Tidings "Courage is being scared to death - and saddling up anyway" - John Wayne "The person who pays an ounce of principle for a pound of popularity gets badly cheated" - Ronald Reagan
Narcah Posted September 21, 2013 Posted September 21, 2013 I use my iPhone almost exclusively for Ss, church, hymns, etc. Quote -Jason Youtube.com/narcah
Administrators Naomi Posted September 21, 2013 Administrators Posted September 21, 2013 Much of this is happening in my churches. However, for myself, I have an IPad, Iphone, loaded w/apps etc. but really prefer having my Bible in hand ... I love my electronics but for study I think we miss a lot if we are strictly electronic...just sayin ... Quote If your dreams are not big enough to scare you, they are not big enough for God
Barrington Posted September 21, 2013 Posted September 21, 2013 I speak as a pastor for 36 years. Our church services must meet the spiritual and emotional needs of the members. Too many of our services are disjointed. Too much announcing of stuff and too much stuff at times. Too often the items do not connect. Too many pastors are not involved in planning the Sabbath service, only the sermon. We need more singing, inclusion of members, use of cyber space, etc Quote Partnership is Joy
fccool Posted September 21, 2013 Posted September 21, 2013 Technology is merely an information medium, just like a book is. People could argue the very same thing when the printing press came out - that self-copied Bible or a book is a lot more valuable etc. etc. In the end, technology does make life easier. In reality, it's just a way to read a copy. It's all a form of "projected light" to your brain in the end. What bothers me about today's technology is the "dumbification" of the devices and applications. The new generation tend to think in a more linear manner given the applications and interfaces they are subjected to, while the "non-linearity" can really develop your ability to think. Overall, everything is moving towards oversimplification and reductionism, which really began with the new age of Apple computers attempt to cater to the "mom and dad" generation, and then make it look cooler in a white and shiny package. And then we got windows phone (eeek, as much as I love both Microsoft and Windows) Thank goodness we have Android . All of the geek rant aside - church exists as a subculture. As a subculture, church will naturally integrate plenty of cultural developments that come along. It's really nothing new. That's the reason US services last 1 hr, and presentation software and hardware is used. It's a direct outflow of the corporate business culture. Quote
fccool Posted September 21, 2013 Posted September 21, 2013 I actually written a short story a while ago, where a pastor turned to an advanced holographic technology to take a vocation, and still present a sermon via a pre-recorded hologram. The story ends with a power outage in the church, and we see that the church is empty (implying that both pastor and church members were hologram doubles). Quote
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