The Gospel According to Google

I conducted a technology seminar on Tuesday night for my Church here. The attendance and attention to the session was indeed an experience of grace for me. The church was very warm and people came in droves, and there was hardly room to add additional chairs. After a short time of getting together with tea/coffee, Randy and Steve led us in singing a few songs of praise and worship. I gave a few word of thanks to the hosts, to my supervisor and the many who turned up to want to learn. Then I started with Colossians 1, to direct people's attention to the word of truth, hoping to let people know that we ought to be concerned with truth that spreads throughout the world, and to be wary of contagious untruths.

The title of the seminar is catchy. It is intentional as it gives a new flavour to the more formal title Technology and the Christian. My purpose is to help Christians be more aware of the technologies around and not remain as passive consumers but thinking disciples of Christ, to be conscious that human beings are tool-using creatures, and there is nothing to be afraid about being 'technologically-challenged'. Focusing on three aspects of technology, I zoomed in on a) Attention; b) Language; and c) Stories. The rest of the seminar contained my personal stories about technology in terms of these three categories. Many of the listeners were sharing about their struggles and the challenges they face about technology. I tried to show them that throughout the different generations, technology has always been in use, and as we try to build a church together, we ought to learn the language used by different groups and different generations. This is critical because a church without the participation of any one generational group is like a book with some pages torn out. When I led everyone towards a journey through the generations, there was lots of nodding of recognition of the different symbols and language of the different generations represented.

I felt that I have only touched the tip of the iceberg, as there are apparently a lot of interest in this particular area. It was a good evening of fellowship and learning, for the people who came, including myself.

ks