This paper is composed of several different things I have been journaling and reading about recently. They all seemed to come together in an odd sort of synchronicity.

These include; some thoughts regarding the importance of our online presence and our growing into a missional church as argued by Tod Bolsinger in his book, Canoeing the Mountains. In fact, I’ll start with several portions from his book that speak to my points.

Canoeing the Mountains by Tod Bolsinger

“Sent to the world, and equipped and being equipped for the sending. p 38

An online presence, along with the many ways that IT is used within our church, has become critical in the same way as facilities management, personnel, accounting, or financial management are. They may not seem especially sacred on their own, but they are indispensable for the effective operation/mission of the church in America today. As we move out into the world, we must be properly and effectively equipped by and with IT.

“The formation of the witnessing communities whose purpose was to continue the witness that brought them into existence” p 38

I expect that we will progressively become a missionary oriented church, a witnessing church. But witnessing to whom? Whoever they are, in the local community, the next state over, or on another continent, they are all online and assume that if we have anything of value to offer that we are also fully online.

“In short, churches need to keep adventuring or they will die. We need to press on to the uncharted territory of making traditional churches missionary churches.” p 38

“Local churches must be continually moving out, extending themselves into the world, being the missional, witnessing communities we were called into being to be: the manifestation of God’s going into the word, crossing boundaries, proclaiming, teaching, healing, loving, serving and extending the reign of God” p 38

Move out to where? Another campus? A larger geographic area of members? Sure, but those are not the point. They are old answers for a time we are no longer in.

Moving out for us, in this time, in this society, means establishing a valuable, energetic, living presence online. That does not mean de-emphasizing our facilities or in-person activities to any degree. In the same way that the apostles moved out into the pagan world, they did not abandon Jerusalem, they took up offerings for Jerusalem and nurtured it. Both the local home church and the missions were areas for expansion.

“We are in uncharted territory facing the same adventure-or-die moment. And if traditional churches are going to become missionary churches, then pastors must become truly missional leaders of missional communities.”

I understand ‘pastors’ here not to mean just those who preach or have Bible based educational degrees. I understand each staff member and volunteer who is leading a ministry to be a ‘pastor’ in this context. We all deal with people, and have our parts to do in extending our ministries out to people both in and beyond the local church.

“This kind of leadership is complex and fraught with loss, fears, and anxiety, causing us to feel off-balance and insecure. But it is the essence of leadership in a changing world.” p 41

Yes it is. Mistakes, pain, and embarrassment are certain. Push back, 'I told you this would happen!', and all sorts of unfair and mean criticism can be expected. But none of that is new. And all of that is just as sure to occur whether we retool back to the 50's and 60's, stay exactly as we are, close the doors, or start a kool-aid farm in some forest. (Too dark, too soon?)

Where We Are

New technology (new to the church or in general), and more to the point its use, represents a tool-set that when properly incorporated into the structure of the church will provide many of the significant and vital benefits and capabilities unavailable otherwise. In pursuing our primary mission, leadership should be made aware of and consider any 'opportunities', perspectives, or empowering tangibles or intangibles either currently available or anticipated in order to position the different ministries for success.

The question is not whether or not to use a specific IT, but which technologies will best empower the church to pursue its mission(s). Note that 'best' means affordable, manageable, best of bread, established and stable, sustainable, well supported, extendable, secure, and reputable.

That means a cohesive vision of hardware and software that enables staff/ministers/volunteers/members to best develop and realize their visions.

Our church has long since passed the point where volunteers can provide administration, vision, stability, versatility, troubleshooting, expansion, re-configuration, integrity, availability, and the confidentiality required and expected for a network as large and diverse as ours, and which supports a staggering array of functions and uses.

But there will also be continued adoption of technology by the younger generations. Social media, metaverse, wearables, etc. are where the younger generations will be, so we need to be there to meet them with the Gospel.

In the world we have created, and are destined to work within for the foreseeable future, a different set of skills and aptitudes are necessary for success in most endeavors, including the church.

In previous generations, physical strength was valued because it was the power that created and operated the machinery that served society.

Today, strength has largely been replaced with the power of imagination, vision, and ingenuity. And those being focused and applied by project management, organizing skills, and cooperative team dynamics. The materials of metal and wood have been replaced with hardware and code.

Meeting people where they are

This is, in part, my response to the frequent suggestions to curb our exploration and journey into online environments, even to reverse course.

Meeting people where they are. I believe this to be a fundamental requirement in spreading the Gospel and in loving our neighbors.

One result of the church being in a static location (geographically or conceptually) is that it requires people to first find us (because of some ambiguous curiosity or motivation), and then to travel to where we are. This can only lead to a feeling of self-satisfaction while we fail.

Jesus was a wonderful example of this idea, going deep into uncomfortable places full of uncomfortable people, saying things they were not searching to hear. He went to where the people were and lived effective truth and grace as his method of interaction.

Jesus taught that the seed is to be scattered across different types of ground. And that the holy spirit would then do his part and help it grow. But notice the assumption that the seed would be spread where you could expect seed to take root. There are no instructions to avoid spreading the seed inside of jars, in the middle of the sea, or anywhere else it would be wasted having nothing to take root in.

Clearly, spreading the word implies that it is to be spread among people, where they are, in ways they would notice it, and in ways that are digestible to them. It is then the work of the holy spirit to help it take hold in receptive hearts.

No, our God is not limited or stimeded from accomplishing his will simply by our failures. He will make a way where there is no way. But his sufficiency does not remove from us the obligation and opportunity to be obedient and successful rather than unnecessarily incompetent.

For some time now most of the world has adopted 'online' as a fundamental and requisite aspect of daily life. Online is where we learn, buy and sell, interact with others, organize our lives and plans, are entertained, and where we expect others to do the same.

Our faith is no different. There is nothing that exempts faith from pursuing its mission on the Internet, online. And there is nothing intrinsic to the Internet that is antagonistic to faith.

And now to what prompted the above background in preparation for a response.

But there is push back to faith taking the most advantage of what online has to offer, to staying the course of learning, exploring, and adapting. And there are causes for this push back. Specifically the discomfort of change, the pain of learning, and the fear of the unfamiliar.

And while we continue to learn about and build on our online presence, it will continue to be uncomfortable and scary - that is simply part of exploring and learning the lay of this new land,

Fortunately, we are blessed to be in very good shape having already expended the time, effort, and cost of establishing a strong, stable, expansive, sustainable, flexible, and extensible online presence, a base from which to produce material, manage our presence, and create interaction and relationships.

Some time ago, a new vision was developed, adopted, and taken on. That is what has gotten us to the place and condition we are fortunate to be in. Most churches have been struggling with recognizing the need for change let alone what that change means, or how to get started.

We today are very much indebted to those who some years ago recognized our future, studied to understand what it might mean and how to respond to it, and then did the very hard work of developing, presenting, convincing, investing in, and then doing the actual work to turn that vision into tangible real things and activities.

However, that journey is not done. We are well on our way, but have possibly plateaued for the moment. I suggest that it is time now to recommit to that vision, which is clearer now that we are farther along in the process, and more confidently into that scary and uncertain place where the same old deadly questions arise; ‘Is it safe? Is it reasonable at this time? How about another committee?’

In addition we have many people on staff and in leadership who are committed to our success in leveraging online as a fundamental component to our church and mission.

We also have people who are exceptionally able to guide and accomplish our online missionary vision, while maintaining and operating the pieces and parts that make it all possible. That is all very unusual, very rare, and directly the result of the bold and scary vision having been developed and adopted years ago.

But even being this far along, we continue to hear rumblings and the longing to be rid of all the gizmos, all the crazy words and acronyms, and especially of the nonsensical concepts everyone is expected to understand. That longing for how it used to be. Back when we understood everything, were familiar with the world, and comfortable about our place in it. Never mind that the past was never actually like that.

That thinking is a dangerous and slippery slope.

Adjusting to a post-christian society, re-imagining and retooling (actually adapting) the church and its leadership to best pursue our mission and all that that entails will always take energy and activity, cooperation and organization.

That slippery slope back to the comfortable past saps that energy, reduces that activity, and gnaws at the threads that maintain cooperation and organization.

We absolutely do not want to shame, 'cancel', or point out those who on occasion share those regressive musings. Instead we need to better talk about and explain the situation, the risks, and the ideas that will help us adapt as well as the divisiveness and damage that such musings foster.

(That sure sounds dangerously 1984!)

So how to proceed?

First, remind ourselves of what we want to see accomplished.

Second, continue to take stock of the materials we have to work with.

Third, continue learning and doing the work of bringing it all to pass.

In more concrete terms; explore new (to us) and emergent social media environments, services, tools and other things and their combination to determine if they can offer enough value if adopted redesign, regularly, our online presence so that we are easy to find, so each point of presence clearly points to each of the others invest time and effort to address SEO (Search Engine Optimization) provide ways to educate and support church members, visitors, and online visitors so they would be more comfortable and familiar with our online resources possibly offer Wednesday evening sessions to explain the ramifications of our post-christian society and the best-practices we are adopting to be as effective as we can be

And some more…

We need to push on with our digital presence in many ways and areas. Not to replace or de-emphasize in-person involvement, but to reach out to the majority of people where they actually are today, and in the ways they normally operate in life. That means social media - several of them, YouTube and many more. They supplement personal engagement, serving those who for whatever reason cannot or will not engage in person.

IT needs to become an assumed aspect of the church right along with personnel, bookkeeping, grounds maintenance, payroll, janitorial and all the other areas that are necessary for pursuing our mission. IT has been moved in that direction, but could be seen a bit more fundamental. I used to tell each agency I advised that while they have a primary mission or purpose, they also have a secondary mission to keep informed about emergent and relevant technology in order to adopt and leverage technology that best empower them to pursue their primary mission.

Today, society says that if you are off-line, then you are irrelevant. If you are online, you have to be slick, content rich, accessible, up to date, relevant, cohesive, and navigable. Otherwise you are ignored.

This means a significant investment of skilled staff and time, and buy-in by leadership and staff. Commitment to Social Media and Streaming (Facebook, YouTube, and our Website) being a requisite component of ministry today and the foreseeable future.

We have made that investment, but our execution needs ongoing work, and some recommitment. We have several points of presence in Social Media, but they are not cohesive, they are difficult to navigate, they are not intuitive, and not cross linked, and so on.

We need to have the stakeholders (staff/people involved with our Social Media efforts) work together on redesigning our presence so that a person (member of visitor) can locate us in the way they use Social Media, and there find intuitive links to our other locations. We need to brand all social media similarly so there is consistency, even though the different ministries can add their themes and flavor based on their target demographic.

Most importantly, our presence needs to be such that however a person uses the Internet, they can find us, navigate that instance, and follow links to all of our other points of presence.

Let's stop for a moment and consider where we are, and why this is not being seriously considered at the moment.

We have reached a point where the basic vision for 'online' that was formed and adopted several years ago has now been 'achieved' and any additional forward movement is an entirely new vision that was predictable but never articulated or envisioned. 'We are going to work hard and achieve this thing!' But now having achieved it, what happens next? We have won a victory, with no thought about making progress with peace. That is how this world works; envision a milestone, reach it, and envision the next. It is a process rather than a task. Tasks are combined to make processes.

Having achieved the vision made years ago, this lull we have reached opens room for questioning the vision itself, its value, the worth of maintaining this achievement, and even the value of a new or extended vision.

The apathey of accomplishment. The comfortable inaction of having arrived.

---[Social media]---

As I see it, the point is not whether to move from in-person to streaming services or not, or to what degree. The point should be to incorporate and leverage existing and emergent information technology in ways that will empower the church to pursue its primary mission - introducing people to Jesus and facilitating their relationship (discipleship).

Future leadership should understand the competing visions for Social Media, online services, online teaching and devotions, and communications with members just to name a few information technology related issues. Not to mention the proper and necessary administration of those resources. As with a family, adoption is not simply about integration, but also nurturing, cultivating, supporting, protecting, monitoring, and directing. Too often, information technology is seen as a thing you buy, plug-in, use, and never have to deal with again. This is disastrous. As with any component of an organization/organism, information technology requires a commitment, and responsible follow through.

Conclusion (its about time)

This has not been about mistakes, failures, or a chance to criticize from a safe place. The points made here are meant to be encouraging, and to recognize the important work already done.