Change is inevitable, constant and good! Yet, change is scary because, in part, we don't know what the next stage is. I'm reading a book right now called "Here comes everybody", it speaks of how the internet is our "Gutenburg press". Back when the printing press was invented, the scribes were against it and even wrote against its use. Why? Job security! The press threatened their very existence and so instead of embracing something that would help society as a whole, they tried to suppress it for their own selfish motives. Perhaps the greatest irony was that they actually used the press to get their vitriolic ideas out there!
The internet and all that the www world entails is our Gutenburg. What will we do with it. As i have observed and spoken with church leaders, the response tends to fall on both sides of a continuum. Some tend to oppose the technological advances as moving away from the core of what we are supposed to be as the church. Others embrace every new method out there regardless of whether or not it helps with their ministry, in the name of "new-ness".
The balance is in-between. The new reality allows us to redefine the way things work and that is good but we must choose wisely. In the global missions endeavor there are new horizons that previously never existed. We can communicate more now to partners around the globe in a matter of seconds - through Skype, Twitter, Facebook and the more antiquated email format - people can see what is happening "on the field" instantly. I believe that in the near future that will change even more. Who knows, maybe we will start having 'virtual furlough'!
Let's keep the change, but change wisely - thanks for praying!
