Greg Atkinson

Several conversations lately have led me to consider the integration and universality of technology in a local church context. To be integrated means “combining or coordinating separate elements so as to provide a harmonious, interrelated whole” or “organized or structured so that constituent units function cooperatively.”

Universal means “affecting, concerning, or involving all”, “used or understood by all” or “present everywhere.” As I continue to chew on this concept, other words that come to mind are total, comprehensive and whole.  

I serve as a technology pastor at a church. For years “tech” was considered one person’s role (the techie, tech director or AV coordinator) – whether volunteer, part-time or full-time. Now in most local church situations there is still the need for this AV/tech role that oversees the sound, video and lights for corporate worship services and often oversees and supports campus-wide AV needs. IT is obviously another growing area in the church world and usually requires a dedicated volunteer or paid staff member or the use of outsourced companies.

I’ll be the first to admit that those that serve in “tech” and IT roles in a church have a unique gift mix and personality. In most situations these servants and leaders are seen more as geeks than pastors or ministers. I see my role as a pastor and shepherd, but that’s a topic for another article.

I bring the idea of universal technology up because we’re seeing a shift in the way the Church looks, functions and ministers to the world. The reality that we are missionaries in a digital age is becoming increasingly more apparent and hard to ignore. This brings the whole concept of “technology” to the forefront for regular pastors and church staff members – including the non-techie.

The conversations that I have regularly with pastors are about their desire to learn, understand, apply and fully utilize technology for ministry. The shift is bringing about what I call “universal technology” – meaning every Church leader is engaged in, using and communicating through technology – not just the tech pastor.

Events, gatherings and conferences that I’m regularly apart of look a lot different. The Church 2.0 Local Forums that I host around the country or the churchtechcamp, happening today in Dallas for example, 3 years ago would have been a room full of “geeks” (not my word, I got that from Mark Batterson) and “techies” (that is my word). Now, one walks into a “churchtechcamp” and it’s full of church planters, senior pastors, bloggers and lay leaders/volunteers that are involved in community/small groups and discipleship.

I’m fascinated by it and am enjoying just sitting back and watching this shift. Of course there are still giant conferences like NAB and InfoComm where us techies get together and talk about all things tech-related and the make up of attendees and speakers looks a lot different, but overall I see a change in the use of the word “tech” and the concept and adoption of “technology”.

This new reality that I’m referring to as universal technology is a good thing and a long-awaited one by me, personally. I’ve always viewed technology as a tool and not a toy, so the thought of senior pastors, worship pastors, youth pastors, communication directors, small group leaders, missions and outreach leaders, etc. getting interested, involved with and captivated by technology is a beautiful sight to me.

What about you and your situation? Are you seeing volunteers and staff members that don’t have “tech” in their title or job description talk about technology, Facebook, Twitter, blogging and online ministry?

After 13 years of ministry on a church staff I’ve learned one simple, but very true law of ministry: Sunday comes every week. It doesn’t matter how big the event, conference, concert, production, musical… you name it - doesn’t matter what you just did, Sunday’s coming. 

It is relentless. I know this. I’ve known this for many years, but it struck me yesterday when we were in our production meeting for this Sunday and we were all tired and mentally exhausted from the previous week’s Christmas production.

This is my “ministry law” that I offer to you, friends. What law would you add?

CHRISTMAS RESOURCE:

This Christmas season at Bent Tree we’re using the Christmas Pak 4 by SermonVideos.com - thankfully they have it in HD.

Read my blog? Like it? You can vote for it HERE. Thanks!

My friend, Pace, at Fellowship Church posted this video that they did recently. I love it! Art is about expression. How are you expressing yourself as an artist? Does your church let you express yourself? Do you feel like your church stiffles or depresses creativity, freedom and expression in your situation? Express yourself!

New Creation from Pace Hartfield on Vimeo. 

EXTRA:

Speaking of expression: I’ve got a lot of thoughts and comments that I’m processing through right now. I’m pretty fired up. I’m greatly encouraged by the many of you that responded to yesterday’s blog post. I’m also greatly concerned by some people’s reaction. Bear with me. I’m trying to handle it Christ-like.

Today, friends, I’d like to tell you about FreeFoto.com. When I spoke in Boston I met a new friend, Colin Britton, who I had been chatting with online for sometime and actually helped organzize my Church 2.0 Local Forum there. Colin is the co-founder of FreeFoto.com. They are a GREAT resource for you to check out and use.

FreeFoto.com is made up of 122886 images with 157 sections organized into 3386 categories. FreeFoto.com is the largest collection of free photographs on the Internet (link back and attribution required). See FREE USE RULES. The comprehensive, yet easy to navigate site, offers images that are free for on-line use, with higher quality versions available for sale.

Also non-commercial users may download their web size images to use off-line in school projects, church services, cards, leaflets, etc. Basically if your off-line use is not commercial you can download their web size images for free. FreeFoto.com features exclusive images found nowhere else on the web with new pictures being added every week.

*** Hear me: If you’d like to find some FREE pictures to use for your church/ministry website, bulletin, newsletter, etc - you’ve found a new resource here. 

Yesterday we finished our annual Missions Festival. The past 2 Sundays have been awesome. On the video side we did video tracks to “God of This City” (the Passion version) and “Tears of the Saints” (by Leeland). 

One of the most special moments of worship I’ve ever been a part of was yesterday as we worshipped like most of the Church does (with either no or low tech). We hung a light bulb from the ceiling (which is something our team had seen in a church in the Amazon) and used a cheap portable system to amplify our voices to entire room. It was definitely not the norm and will surely be memorable. Tomorrow I’ll show more pictures from our India experience - you don’t want to miss it!

Click below to see a brief glimpse of what worship was like yesterday:

EXTRA:
Boston was amazing! Such a cool city. I had Clam Chowder 3 times in 3 days. Great people. Great conversation at the Church 2.0 Local Forum. We had people from 3 states and I’m excited for those servants in a very special part of our country. Church 2.0 Tulsa is THIS Friday! 

Times are tough and I respect Igniter Media Group for trying to help out. Below are graphics from their newsletter they sent out yesterday. I have everything that Igniter has ever done in my media library. If you don’t, this might be a good opportunity to add them to your collection. 

1. Communicate
2. Connect
3. Contribute
4. Collaborate