From the Experts: The Digital Church

This first couple of articles analyze the good points and bad points of a digital church. The last few are some guidelines for Pastors about using media like Facebook and Twitter that I found helpful.
  

The Deep Limitations of The Digital Church by Albert Mohler
Summary

Mohler expresses his gratitude for the digitization of the technology-apt church. But he has some reservations about the extent of its use. He is worried, and with good cause, that a church can go overboard with its use of media. He offers some cautions concerning this matter.

Review
I truly appreciate Mohler's first meaty paragraph (after all the intro about an article he read). I agree with him in that there is something extremely healthy about a church that desires to use modern communication tools to carry out the Great Commission. And I also agree that there are certain dangers that must be understood. The only reservation I have is that his article almost makes it sound bad to live stream a service, though I understand his hesitation about it.


Christian Media is Horrible Media Say Critics by Gordon Marcy
Summary

Marcy discusses the balances between focusing on your marketing and your message. Today's culture equates church marketing as bad marketing (and it's mostly true). As a matter of fact, there is a whole website dedicated to bad church marketing. Marcy's argument is that we shouldn't sacrifice the message for the presentation of that message.

Review
I agree with Marcy's focus. The priority should be on the message itself. If you do not communicate your message what is the point of giving in the first place? You've just wasted your time and money if you fail to communicate the message. However, I feel that Marcy downplays packaging. I know he continually mentions that we need to improve our marketing, but the tone I get when I read it is that a bad package plus a good message is okay by him.

Sure, most churches have gotten by doing just that for years, but changing that is what Media Missions is all about. We desire to see you improve your package to compliment a good message with good packaging. I'm sure that is his overall desire as well, I just had to get that in there.


Facebook Guidelines for Pastors and Others by Steve Cornell

Summary
The premise for this article is the Pastor's improper use of Facebook. He tells the story of a pastor who confesses of a Facebook affair. Cornell states that he has seen more than one such Facebook affair. His article features a list of things you can do and shouldn't do on Facebook.

Review
This article is more than just about the scenario he lists in the beginning, but let me go off on a tangent really quick. To me, any pastor who has his head on straight shouldn't be doing the things he has listed anyway. Most pastors know how to properly treat women they counsel or talk to and could apply those same principles to Facebook or any other digital encounter. The problem comes into play when they purposely disregard those safe-guards (mostly intentionally for the sake of having an affair). Nobody accidentally has an affair. It's a willful decision.

That being said, these are great guidelines for everyone, not just pastors. There are some great suggestions about what not to do. I think that should be applied to texting as well. I particularly appreciate his section on photos. It's worth a read, and we should certainly be more cautious about how we use Facebook. The questions at the end also provide a great spiritual check to see what's more important for you, God or Facebook.

When Pastors Update and Tweet Dos and Don'ts by Steve Cornell
Summary
This article is almost exactly the same and the last one. The only difference is that it contains Biblical principle.

Review
I didn't want to just use this article because I appreciate some of the more in-depth details on the last article, but the Biblical principles were too good to just leave this off altogether. You can skip the top details and go straight for the Bible verses, everything else is the same.

Posted in: Article Reviews