Change in the digital world

I'm currently reading a very interesting business book that was published in 2009. That doesn't sound very long ago until you begin researching some of the things recommended in the book. The book focuses on doing business in the 21st century and the importance of having a web-based business. In one chapter the author suggests six free online tools that entrepreneurs should use. Two of the six have been discontinued since the book was published. Just as quickly as online tools are developed, they are replaced by something better and faster. It's kind of the like the new computer you buy with all the bells and whistles, and three months later it's outdated due to new technology having been developed.

Think about other changes that have occurred in the digital world. From 2005-2009 My Space was the largest social networking site in the world with over 100,000 users per month. However, it was then surpassed by Facebook, and today it is but a fraction of its former size. Now, Facebook faces challenges from newer social media sites such as MeWe, which is the currently the second most downloaded app on Google Play Store, Pinterest, WT Social and a host of others.

Another change that is coming in 2021 is that Microsoft 365 products will stop supporting Internet Explorer. In 2003 IE was the most widely used web browser, but its popularity has decreased steadily since Firefox and Google Chrome were introduced. In 2015 Microsoft announced that Microsoft Edge would replace IE on its Windows 10 devices.

Now, you may be like me and these changes do not affect you very much. Or you may be a person who is always on the lookout for the latest and greatest in technology. If you are in the latter group, good luck keeping up with all the changes occurring in the digital world. I suspect these changes will only increase in their rapidity. 

The real purpose of this post is to point out that changes are coming just as quickly in the church world as well. This year we saw the need for churches who had no online presence to quickly develop one. For many of these churches their online presence was an introductory one. The challenge now will be to understand how to build upon that. 

Many churches that began offering their worship services online found that their in-person attendance and the number of those who were watching the services online were more than previously attended their services. I mentioned in a previous post that we now have three congregations: those who attend in person, those who attend only online, and those who attend some services in person and other services online. How do we minister to these three different groups of people? How do we even identify the ones who only attend online? How do we do discipleship with each of the three groups? How do we help the ones online to feel connected to our churches? How do we provide pastoral care to our online congregation if we do not even know who they are? I'm sure you can add many more questions to this list, but this is enough to help us understand that we are facing an entirely new way of doing church that most of us have not considered in the past.

We can ignore these questions, but we do so at our peril. If we want to continue to be used by God to be a witness to this generation we must find answers to these questions, and many others as well. In my opinion, if you think 2020 has been challenging to the church, you ain't seen nothing yet!