Technology and our battle with sin

I love technology.  Whilst not an early adopter, I'm often not that far behind depending on cost.  Technology is good, it is part of God's good gift of creation to us.  Human ingenuity and creativity is part of what it means for us to be made in the image of the imaginative and creative God.  But like everything this side of the fall our relationship with technology is marred by sin.

That is increasingly seen in the way technology is propelling us further and further apart as a society, as individuals, families and churches.  We crave community and connection with one another but are also terrified of it as a result of the fall and sin and the shame, mistrust and fear it injects into the world and our relationships.  And this is exactly where technology promises to help us but fails to deliver on its promise.  Just think for a minute about the way technology is depriving us of human interaction.

We go shopping and can avoid human interaction via hand held scanners or fast lane self service tills.  We can browse, shop, purchase, provide feedback and even specify deliveries so that we avoid human interaction.  We message or interact on line with no face to face contact or even voice connection.  It even changes the way we watch TV as families.  I used to love Saturday evenings sat as a family watching Doctor Who or the A-Team or the Dukes of Hazard.  The whole family would gather round to watch, united in their enjoyment, and talking about, and often reenacting, what they had seen.  But not now.  Now one or two may be watching Netflix with headphones in, whilst another browses the internet and another plays a game on a console.  I'm sure you can think of a load of other examples too, and those things are changing us and our society and not for the better.

In the last 15 years we've learnt a whole new range of subtle cues about whether someone wants to interact with us or not.  If someone has their headphones in they are sending clear message - don't you dare interrupt me.  If someone is on their phone talking animatedly we know not to butt in, we definitely know that if they have a hands free in-ear device.  If someone is walking and scrolling or texting we know not to speak or say hello.  Even if someone is in church but on their phone before or after the service we are reticent to go and interrupt.  Our phones are increasingly a shield from human interaction.

And all of this is effecting our families and our churches as well as our communities.  If interaction is increasingly mediated via technology then it ought not to surprise us when people opt to listen to a podcast rather than come along to church on Sunday and apply the challenging one another's with real people.  If interaction is crisp and on my terms and tailored to my consumer wants in everyday life then we ought not to be surprised that people relate how they want when they want rather than being there for others when they need even though that isn't really convenient.

So what?  We need to ask some challenging questions of our use of or master by technology because so much of this creeps up on us gradually.  How much are we being effected by the negatives of our technology?  What impact is it having on your family and your church and your community?  Technology is a wonderful tool but an abusive, enslaving, isolating and rapacious master.  It separates marriages, keeps children from their parents and divides churches.  Maybe we need to stop and take stock of where we are in terms of our master servant relationship with technology with the help of others?  It might be worth carrying out an audit of our use of technology.

We also need to think about putting some boundaries in place.  It might be that a period of time without devices is helpful, certainly limits will be necessary for many of us.  Let me share a few I'm going to try to enact as a result of thinking about these things, as well as some we already do as a family.

1. Create space and time for relationship.  We have a rule that we don't have phones at the table (and even an annoying song that the boys sing if one is seen) during meals.  Shared meal times have always been vital to building relationships, just read the gospels, but the presence of a phone - even just face down on a table changes the way we interact.
2. Being present and committed means using the off button.  Yes your phone has a silent button or switch but it also has an off button you can press and totally liberate yourself from unwanted distractions, fully giving yourself to those around you.  I am always amazed at our failure to fully commit to others.  I have sat in meetings of church leaders to sharpen up one another's sermon prep that have been repeatedly interrupted by the chirrups of texts, or phone calls.  Turn it off, encouragement begins with physical presence, it is multiplied by uninterrupted presence that says this is, you are, a priority to me.  In church unless you are a brain surgeon on-call be honest who really needs to get hold of you RIGHT NOW?
3. Digital detox.  How about going for one hour a day, one day week without your phone for the next month or two?
4. Prioritise presence.  I've always walked the dog with headphones in listening to sermons and that isn't bad.  But it does signal something to my community about what I value and how present I am.  So I want to change that.  I often use the self service till in shops but I want to commit to interact with a shop assistant instead.

I'm not sure how I'll go with those.  Maybe I'll blog further on it.  Technology is a good gift of God, but like all of God's good gifts Satan can't wait to subvert and pervert it.  The challenge for us as God's people it to think through how we make it a conduit of grace to a lost world and our embodied brothers and sisters and then put it into practice.

Church Attachment Disorder

We tend to polarise things as either good or bad.  The issue is not the thing it is the human heart that uses it.  The internet has been a tremendous force for good but it has also been twisted so that it promotes sin and dulls love for Christ.

One of the areas where it has been at its most beneficial and its most destructive is in the easy access we have to podcasts or MP3s. It is brilliantly helpful to be able to download and listen to experienced preachers preach well, I always have 4 or 5 sermons on my phone so I can listen to them.  Sermons from Pastors in the UK, the states and further afield, some well know others less so, and they are immensely helpful.  They are also great if you can't make a conference, to be able to listen later is invaluable.  It is also immensely helpful within our churches, those who are out teaching the children can listen again in the week, we ourselves can listen again to help solidify thing sin our minds and apply it to our hearts and lives.  Used wisely and discerningly they can help us with preparation.

But we also need to recognise that there can be destructive effects.  Increasingly there seems to be a detachment from real living breathing church, I've heard a number of people say when asked why they've been missing church.  "Oh, I don't really need church, I've decided to stay at home and listen to _________(fill in the blank with a more well known pastor) on the internet."    This attitude is leading to a church detachment disorder - Christians who will not commit to a local congregation with its joys and sorrows, or listen to a pastor who may not preach as well as a more experienced pastor but is a living breathing pastor.

Such an attitude has reduced church to the sermon, and ignores the congregation and the benefit of real relationships therein.  I wonder if this has partly arisen because of a misunderstanding, maybe even a wrong emphasis, in the church on the sermon.  Our interaction with the Bible must not stop at listening to the sermon, but we are to be working it into one another's lives, to be discussing it together, to be challenging one another, to be comforting one another as we look to change in light of what we've heard as we apply the gospel within the church family.

I wonder if another thing that has led to this problem is seeing pastors solely as preachers.  Are we guilty of this?  Do our people see us outside of the pulpit, outside of a Sunday?  Are we loving them, speaking the truth to them during the week as well as Sundays?

Church attachment disorder is the result of lots of forces in society but we also need to recognise the part we may play in encouraging it, and repent of those misunderstandings we may have helped propagate and change.

How we've learnt to be be 'alone together'

I came across this when a friend recommended it as being worth a read; http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/opinion/sunday/the-flight-from-conversation.html?smid=tw-share  I think it brilliantly and insightfully captures our growing problem as technology enables us to communicate but as we withdraw from conversation and real relationships.

Its worth thinking about the long term implications of this for church too, can we carry out gospelling of one another via social media, mms, sms or fleeting contact?