A new smartphone's ads claim that the phone is designed in such a way that you can easily check it for updates to your various social media channels and quickly get back to being a good father or husband or friend.
The idea seems to be that if only we have the right hardware, we will be able to spend more time doing what's really important.
But the thing is, we check our phones and spend more time on more devices because we like being connected to...other stuff.
So, a really good phone doesn't get us back to life quicker. A really good phone gives us more ways to be distracted.
Kevin Kelly posits what technology wants his recent book
Technology sometimes wants us to want. Or at least the marketers of technology seem to want us to want something else.
Jerry Seinfeld once said about a basic bit of technology, the remote control: you don't use it to see what's on TV, you use it to see what else is on TV.
Smartphones mostly don't give you time to take part in life, they give you a chance to check out what else. Anything else. Other than being present.
So...
What does ministry want?
For people to feel like they are part of something bigger than themselves without having to make real relationships?
For people to feel better about themselves without really having to change their lives?
To be blessed?
To belong?
To matter?
To grow closer to God and the person God created them to be?
Technology sometimes seems a little disingenuous.
So...
What about ministry?
2 comments:
First of all, nice post.
I believe we project our own crap onto "things" like technology and ministry.
What I mean by this is that technology isn't the cause of our lack of presence. It's the tool we choose to use to NOT have to be present. And ministry isn't the cause of our superficial engagement with God and church. It, too, is a tool we choose to avoid the messy, real relationships.
What's really happening is that we are looking for distractions and diversity. And we choose technology and programs that help us medicate this restlessness.
Of course, there's a polar opposite to this also, which is to say that we can be MORE present with people through technology and programs than we can physically. Through this blog post, for instance, I believe you and are having a very present dialogue across space and time.
So technology and ministry want us to be more than we are and do more than we can without them. Which means the real question is, "What do WE really want from technology and ministry?"
It's almost like the Amish is it who limit the gadgets that they have in the home. It's not that there is any thing wrong really with a phone smart or any other kind of phone, it's just that they don't have them in their homes because they take away from what the home is about.
I know I have misplaced technology and misplaced ministry. I bring one or the other where I should be talking about what I might be really feeling at a particular moment. Maybe I should be watching the sun set or feeling the cross breeze in my car while I'm waiting for my daughter to come out from school.
But I'm checking a feed read or posting a status update.
Maybe too, I'm so wrapped up in the ministry or the program, I don't take time to enjoy cooking the food or laughing with the volunteers.
Maybe I just need some more Amish time in my technology and my ministry.
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