I’m an Apple fan boy; and like all good Apple fan boys and girls, on the 2nd of June 2014, I sat down to watch the WWDC (that’s the Worldwide Developers Conference which Apple has every year) and see and hear the latest wonders to be announced from Cupertino! As usual, there were lots of cool and funky announcements and OSX Yosemite and iOS 8 looks all nice and shiny…
However whilst watching it, and thinking about it all afterwards, was just how much like it was to a ‘modern’ church service!
That thought might sound terrible to some people (and others would argue that the followers of Apple treat it like a kind of religion…) but here’s the similarities that struck me:
What Happened Before The Event
Once the masses has assembled into the room, people where sitting and having a chat; but most people were checking their phones! How much is that like a church pre-service with people reading the pew/announcement sheet and also checking their phones!?
Do we really have fellowship before services or are we in our own little world waiting for the ‘big event’ to take place?
The Look of the Event
Like most big christian/church events nowadays, there was a big stage with a large screen at the back and a static podium/speaking are at the side where things could be presented if needed.
Granted there wasn’t a worship band at WWDC, but there was one heck of a PA system – one probably on par with many churches these dates…
The Presentation Of The Event
Like so many Churches, the WWDC was mainly presented by white middle aged men (wearing jeans and a shirt – and sometimes going ‘untucked’ – radical!)…
There was a main presenter (worship leader) who pulled the different parts of the event together (in this case Tim Cook but Steve Jobs was the master Apple ‘worship leader’!)
And there was a main speaker to do the teaching/main explanation (in this Craig Federighi). Both Tim and Craig cracked a few jokes, some that went down better than others (sound like church anyone?!).
There were also some other guests invited to tell about their work ‘in the field’.
Everyone used lots of slides and videos – some more understandable than others (again, church anyone?!).
And when the leader/presenter said something important, there was lots of clapping (although I didn’t hear any ‘hallelujahs’ at the WWDC!). People were also variously tweeting and posting on social media about what was being said at the event – something that’s happening more and more within churches; and of course the whole event was being live streamed – another thing more and more churches are doing.
I also thought it was interesting that end of the WWDC event, Tim Cook asked all the contributors to ‘the latest work’ to stand up and be recognized. To me that was something possibly more borrowed from church experience than the other way round. In many churches I’ve seen people involved in past, present and future different missions of the church to stand and be recognized. I’ve also seen visitors be asked to stand – perhaps not such a wise idea…?!
After The Event
Following the event, the first thing that seemed to happen was that the phones were being checked again! And then everyone left the room and went to try and find a cup of coffee!
So those were my observations and thoughts. I’m not saying any of the parallels I’ve drawn are either good or bad, but I certainly found it interesting to see what things have seemingly been ‘borrowed’ in both directions.
So over to you:
Have you noticed similarities between WWDC (and other tech type events) and what happens in churches?
What do you think of such similarities?
What can churches learn from the WWDC and the like?
And what could the WWDC and the like learn from churches?
[Images via the TechCrunch WDDC 2014 Keynote Live Blog]
Eric Dye says
Great observations man. 🙂