Sunday afternoon when I returned home from church I tried to access the Internet on my computer. Nothing happened. Throughout the day I would try again thinking that perhaps the server was down. I finally called my provider and was told there were no issues in our area. I tried my laptop and was able to get online. That convinced me that something was wrong with my desktop, and my fear was that I had contracted a virus. That became more likely when I realized that my virus detector was shut down and nothing I did could open it back up. Not wanting to bother my IT guy on a Sunday I began using my laptop when suddenly it went off-line and refused to get back online as well.
Monday morning I called my IT person who asked me to bring my laptop to his home. About two hours later I left there with a system that would go online. It had some minor issues but now it was working great. I was given a couple of things to try with my desktop, but neither of them worked. On Tuesday the desktop went in for repairs, and late Wednesday evening I received a call saying it was fixed. A really bad spyware had got in that was difficult to detect and find but very destructive. I wish I knew how it got in my computer, but the good news is that I'm back online.
What was so troubling is how dependent I realized I am on my computers. I was receiving e-mails by phone, but phones are not conducive to long responses back to e-mail questions. Virtually everything I started to do the past few days I was unable to do because I needed to go online to retrieve information or I needed to contact someone. It was very frustrating.
More and more those of us in ministry are using computers to make our work easier. There are great Bible study programs available that can make researching a message much easier. I've often advocated on this site how important it is for ministers and churches, regardless of their size, to have a social media presence that allows for rapid communication with people. Every week more ministers are taking tablets to the pulpit with them rather than their Bibles and notebooks. There is no question that computers can be a valuable tool for ministers. There is also no question that we can quickly become quite dependent on our computers, and if they go down we can find ourselves in trouble.
Another danger with this dependency is that we can begin to neglect the personal contact that leads to better ministry. It is not enough for a pastor to sit at his or her desk and wear the keys out on the computer. Pastoral ministry requires the pastor to go out and spend time with people. He or she needs to be visible in the community as well as to the congregation. The old adage about pastors is too often true: Invisible six days a week and incomprehensible on the seventh. When pastors spend time with people they are less likely to be incomprehensible because they have a better idea of how a message can speak to people.
Computers can also be a huge time waster. Although we often talk about the time they can save us, they can also prevent us from making good use of our time. If we have to stop and check our e-mail every time we receive another message or if we feel compelled to check Facebook every five minutes, we will find that we've lost a lot of time by the end of the day.
Most of us ministry will continue to be pretty dependent on our computers. They do make ministry much more efficient, but let's not trade efficiency for the personal touch that ministry requires. Let's also not give control of our lives over to our computers either. They are just a tool that needs to be properly managed as a part of our lives and ministries.
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