Christians & Technology

The rise of technology just in the span of my life has been meteoric. It's amazing how much things have changed even in the past 6 years...since Facebook first came on the scene. Check out this video for a taste of the significance of social networking and internet influence:


With these technological advancements come good and bad

Social networking sites offer unprecedented opportunities for communication and contact-and that is both the promise and the peril of the technology (Al Mohler)

What are the benefits of technology? What are the benefits of technology for the Church?

Jesus' great commission is well known and in the days of the early church God had prepared the way for the first missionaries to travel all over the known world in safety and speed due to the Pax Romana. The conquering peace throughout the region and the height of Roman technology (their roads) allowed for the swift spread of the Gospel. Today that opportunity for a "swift spread" is even greater.

For $1300 we can travel to the other side of the world in under 48 hours. In seconds we can find ourselves playing checkers with someone in the middle east. Technology affords avenues for the swift spread of the Truth of Jesus Christ like never before. Fulfilling the great commission is easier today than at any other time in history. But are we making the most of it?

All too often the technology that is around us does not lead to a greater fervor for the completion of our mission as the Church. Instead technology leads us to laziness. We want things fast and easy. But that is not the way sanctification works

The patter is this: the greater joys are obtained through struggle and pain, while brief, unsatisfying and often destructive joys are right at our fingertips. Why is this? (John Piper)

You have to make yourself pick up that nourishing theological book while watching a movie can feel so inviting (John Piper)

You frequently have to force yourself to get to devotions and pray while sleeping, reading the sports, and checking Facebook seem effortless. (John Piper)

How are you using technology? Are you using it to the Glory of God and for the spread of his fame around the globe...or is it a time-suck leading to laziness and sin?

One last thought from John Piper:

One of the great uses of Twitter and Facebook will be to prove at the last Day that prayerlessness was not from lack of time.

For more thoughts from Al Mohler on social networking and Christians, check out his article Facebook Turns Five: Thoughts on Social Networking