Last week I was trying to rock my beautiful baby girl to sleep. Poor little one was over tired, so it was talking a little bit longer than normal. Finally, she calmed down but wouldn’t close her eyes! That’s when I started to get bored. I got a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach and I wanted to wake my wife up just to pass me my phone (I didn’t, by the way). I imagine that is what it is like for a smoker to be itching for a cigarette. Just needed to check my notifications, messages, and email. After all, you never know who needs to talk at 1am!
That’s when it hit me: Am I really thinking this? Feeling this way? I’m holding my brand new baby girl, and wishing I had my phone to keep me company? Surely this isn’t me! But the more I thought about it, the more I came to realize that I’ve been sucked into technology and the wonders it offered me.
Have you ever felt this way?
Often, our ministerial lives revolve around tech that we forget about the people and the God we are there to serve. This leads to frustration, anger, isolation, and callousness to the needs of others. As church techies, we’re responsible for everything from lighting the pulpit to sound checks to social media postings and everything in between.
This is not a blanket of sin applied to all of you reading this. This has been a personal conviction of mine. That being said, maybe some of you techies, like me, need to hear it! As followers of Jesus serving our churches, assisting them with technology needs, and helping our friends and family with their tech problems (“The screen’s blue, what do I do??), it’s critical that we don’t get sucked into tech like I have. Below are some reminders and tips for those in the church tech community, as well as those we serve with. We’ll start with us:
- Turn your phone off at meals. Whether it’s date night with the wife or a get together with your friends and family, they want to talk to you, not watch you tweet the meal you’re supposed to be eating with them. It can wait. Trust me.
- Pray specifically for your ministry before you serve. We all know how frustrating it is to show up on Sunday and have a list of things to do that wasn’t there yesterday. Why did it have to wait til the last minute? Nobody knows, but since we have no TARDIS, we’ll have to choose to respond in a Christ-like manner. Prayer bathes the day with a fresh purpose and focus that puts that extra barrier in front of your frustration.
- Live in community. We weren’t made to live alone. I find myself turning inward with my struggles rather than living in community with fellow brothers and sisters. That’s an offense to Jesus and his church. You might have an extremely tough time with that, but give it a good hard go!
- If someone’s talking to you, lock your phone. I can’t tell you how many times my wife, Hannah, has repeated something because she started talking to me while I was doing something on my phone. If she’s talking to you, press the lock button and make eye contact.
- Set some time when you can turn off the computer. Some of us are on the computer full time (either out of necessity or boredom). If you’re working from home, or do ministry at night after you full time day job, block off some time where you’ll take a step back and hang with you’re family. An added note: Make sure your family knows when this time is so they can keep you accountable, and see that you’re serious about being with them and nothing else at that time.
- Keep your promises- I know I’ve put off important stuff around the house to finish a design project, or the presentation for church. If you say you’ll take out the trash, take it out first.
- Serve with patience. A tech life can be demanding, especially one done as a volunteer or lay person. Remember Jesus as a humble servant when you’re tempted to complain or flip out (speaking from experience here).
- Dive into Scripture. This one has always been hard for me, but that doesn’t make it less true. When I spend good, quality time in the Word, I always walk away with a gentler, more compassionate heart.
I hope some of these tips, reminders, and call outs will prove to be useful to you and your team. Lets get back on track and remember that we’re all here to make disciples of all nations, and that what we do in church tech is just a small paragraph in God’s meta-narrative.
What about you? Do you find yourself “sucked into tech,” thinking only about how to entertain yourself or possibly lashing out in anger towards those you serve with? What are some helpful ways you have found to get yourself back on track?
[Image via EdzL D]
[…] too deep into this one for it to hit home. I’ve mentioned I struggle with this in my article Sucked Into Tech, one of my first articles. Point 6: We are growing careless with our words- Groothuis mentions […]