Churches Need the Latest Technology!
Somehow, my congregation got on the mailing list of “Religious Product News” magazine, a glossy publication filled with ideas for “contemporary worship” such as sound systems, stages, fancy lighting, and technology.
This issue includes an article by Jason Caston, “an international speaker, author, and digital media director at Daystar TV.” His piece is called “How Your Church Can Embrace the Future of Digital Communications.” You can read a transcript here, and see the original layout here.
In this article, he argues that there are two kinds of people: First, those who see “digital communication as a supplement to traditional ministry communications” who see this as “the evolution of the church’s communication strategy, providing more ways to reach people both within and outside the church.” There is a second group that wants to “go back to normal,” that is, to the “good ole days of how they used to ‘do’ church, viewing history through rose-colored glasses.”
The author posits that “for some reason churches are not embracing this latest change by embracing digital communication as a tool for ministry.”
He goes on to give a survey of the “current digital communication landscape.” He cites things like websites, blogs, social media, texting, apps, email, and video. But of course, these are virtually the dark ages of digital communication.
Moving forward, he teaches us about Augmented Reality (AR). For example, we could wear AR glasses to church, and watch a “digital re-enactment” of Jesus preaching the Sermon on the Mount while the pastor “is preaching the story.” He compares this to Pokemon Go, and suggests that it will be “even more popular in the coming years.”
He teaches us about Virtual Reality (VR). By using this technology that “has the potential to change the way we communicate forever.” By using this kind of simulation, you could “meet someone in a virtual world, where you can see and hear them (sic) as if they (sic) were physically in the room. You could even shake their (sic) hand or hug them (sic). He envisions “worship services” being done by VR.
Next, he teaches us about Voice Assitants (Alexa). Alexa is “constantly learning and evolving” to “better understand and respond to our needs.”
Finally, he covers the last stage: Artificial Intelligence (AI). “For example,” the author writes, “Imagine having a conversation with a digital assistant that can understand your emotions and give personalized recommendations based on your interactions.” AI can “provide a more personalized experience for the user.”
“So what does all of this mean for your church? The solution to engaging people outside your church is to take the life-saving gospel message to them.” We “must begin using an evolving method… and personalize that life-saving message, so it helps them answer questions they’re asking today” in order to “help them live the best life that God has for them.”
I am amazed at how antiquated Mr. Caston’s technology is. It is downright primitive. It is dependent upon the electricity flowing and upon machines and computers not glitching and being beset by bugs. This technology gives nothing more than a fake experience, and there is no teleportation through space and time, and no actual contact with God across the divide between heaven and earth. For this is all just information without any miracle. It’s as C.S. Lewis said:
“When the atoms inside my skull happen, for physical or chemical reasons, to arrange themselves in a certain way, this gives me, as a by-product, the sensation I call thought. But, if so, how can I trust my own thinking to be true?”
Moreover, this technology is utterly primitive, and the evolution that the author keeps referring to only shows up each advance as being backward and inadequate, like playing the video game “pong” not in 1972 when it was exciting and cutting-edge, but in 2022 - when the same game is old and boring.
And frankly, all of the technology in this article is backward and boring. It is essentially ecclesiastical pornography on a screen. It is all just a simulation, a fantasy.
Sadly, the author overlooks far more astounding technology that is readily available today, in which Christians and God meet not in any artificial or digital or virtual sense, but by means of a miracle in which God occupies material space, in which heaven comes to our churches, in which time is warped and we partake in eternity itself - not in a way in which goggles and speakers fool us into thinking we are doing something that we are not. And this technology happens regularly without the need for electricity or sophisticated equipment.
It is called Sacramental Reality (SR). For example, a baby, born in sinful flesh and destined for death, can, by means of water and the Word, be cleansed spiritually - but in real time in the flesh - and God actually condescends to the child without the need for an IT department and expensive equipment. This is known as Baptismal Regeneration (BR). And our churches are already fully equipped with this technology that blows Alexa - literally - out of the water.
Next, there is Absolution Reality (AR). For example, a penitent is burdened by sin, and cannot shake the feeling that he is condemned because of his offense against God. Without special goggles or earpieces, the voice of God declaring forgiveness is actually delivered to the penitent by the pastor speaking the words that he has been authorized to declare. Again, our churches already have the latest version of this technology, and there is never a need for an upgrade or a reboot. AR can be employed literally anywhere inside or outside the church building, and uses real physical contact to bring forgiveness, life, and salvation to bear upon the penitent. It is a marvel!
Finally, the most sophisticated platform of all is called Eucharistic Reality (ER) - sometimes known as the Real Presence (RP). In this technology, space and time are bent, as Christ Himself comes in the Actual Reality (AR) of His body and blood. Jesus teleports from eternity into time, the same incarnate, fleshly Christ who is God, born of the virgin Mary, crucified, and risen from the dead. He binds Himself miraculously to earthly elements of bread and wine that we eat and drink in Physical Reality (PR). This technology is so advanced that no human being on the planet can understand it or explain it - and yet, it requires no advanced computing and nothing to do with microchips or software. This is a completely hardware- and wordware-driven technology that already exists today in many churches. There isn’t even the need for a lithium-ion battery or a lightning cable. And the technology works perfectly.
Hopefully, Mr. Caston, who is mired in the primitive world of electrons flowing through a wire, will one day be exposed to these miraculous and truly mind-blowing advanced technologies that are eons ahead of his time, and yet are here now.
As G.K. Chesterton said,
I tried to be some ten minutes in advance of the truth. And I found that I was eighteen hundred years behind it.