Power of One Podcast with Tony Medlin - Church and Technology

What are the advantages and disadvantages to the online possibilities for worship today? Let's talk about it!

Transcript

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Welcome to this week's edition of the Power of One podcast with Tony Medlin. I want to share with you what I think is an incredibly powerful verse and has been throughout the history of the church, and that is Hebrews 10, 25, which encourages us as the body of Christ to not forsake the assembling together of the saints. I want to talk about church for me growing up, and you have your own memories, I know, but aren't they special? At least I hope they're special for you. Church growing up as a child represented for me, memories of Sunday school, memories of what we call Methodist Youth Fellowship, MYF, we called it, Bible school. A few podcasts ago, I shared with you about Miss McDuffie, who was one of my Sunday school teachers, MYF leaders, Bible school teachers who had such a tremendous impact upon my life, and still praising the Lord for her. She just celebrated her 100th birthday not long ago. I remember sitting with my grandparents in church and just seeing the look on their faces. They anticipated the opportunity for worship. I remember Mr. and Miss Grumbles sitting in front of me, and Mr. Grumbles making fun of me and saying, Hey, Tony, aren't you meddling in anything today? And I'd say, I'm sure you're grumbling about something. It was just those kinds of relationships as a kid that made church special. I remember going home to my grandparents' house in the country. Mama and papa would fix us lunch and we would just have a good time and we would laugh and we would enjoy the Lord's Day. There were other special days at church. There was Old Timers Day. Hey, we did this about every July the 4th. And I remember Preacher Robinson, as we called him, he would wear overalls and we would all have those funeral home fans that we would wave back and forth. And we would need them because would you believe that we intentionally cut the air conditioner off? But what a special day it was. And to have lunch on the grounds and then a concert that afternoon, and that also described homecoming. Loved homecoming every year. And I love to look at that number on the board. Remember those old boards we used to have in church that had the number of people that attended, the numbers of the songs, the offering even from the last Sunday? And I knew on Homecoming that that number of people that were attending was going to be but was going to be bigger than normal. And I used to get so excited about that. We loved the old hymns. We loved the concerts. We love the dinners on the ground. Church was just something that for me was a very special memory. But more than anything, we were taught, and particularly my grandparents, let me know that the biggest reason we were there was to hear the preaching of the word. I had a couple of pastors that were very special to me as I was growing up. Bob Robinson is the one that I mentioned earlier and is the one that probably had the most influence upon me. He loved the Lord. And every time that he preached, whether or not he was the best orator in the world, some people could debate that, but he was the best pastor I ever had. And when he preached the word, I knew that he had prayed, that he had prepared, and I knew that he had asked God's Holy Spirit to be present because it always was. Church, that gathering together, the assembling together of the saints, it was something that left a lasting memory on me. And that brings me to a topic for today when I want to consider for just a moment, church now. Church now with a lot more technology than we remember when I was a child, and quite possibly when you were as well. Now, COVID and the pandemic, it kind of urged technology along a little bit. And that was a time period in which if people were going to be a part of church, they would have to do it virtually, at least in many cases. But the effects of COVID have lasted, haven't they? Technology has just exploded. And now you can watch your very own church services where you attend. You can watch over YouTube. You can watch over Facebook. Hey, we can do that at Greg's Global Methodist Church as well. You can watch us live on YouTube every week. You can go back and watch it recorded. You can watch it on my Facebook. You can watch it on the church's Facebook. And obviously, I do a podcast every week. Technology, it has exploded. And I'm not fussing about technology. My goodness, I wouldn't have the opportunity to be pursuing my doctoral degree in renewal preaching at Regent University were it not for the ability to do it virtually. Regent, a very academic school, very wonderful in terms of the prestige that the degree brings, and something that I will cherish forever if the Lord allows me to finish this program. But I wouldn't be able to do it if I had to go to Virginia Beach for classes. So I'm grateful for technology. Dr. Eliar Ramos, Eliezer Ramos, I should say, one of my professors, wrote a wonderful article on the effects of technology in the modern-day church and specifically in preaching. A wonderful article, one that really caused me to think and brought me to this topic for this podcast tonight. What we do not want to happen is for the integrity of the preached word of God to be broken. What we do not want to happen is for people to forsake the assembling together of the saints and never experience the in-live, in-person presence of the Holy Spirit as church happens, not just in the preaching, but in the singing, in the praying, in the fellowshipping with one another and experiencing communion together, and celebrating weddings and celebrating lives who have gone on to be with the Lord in a time of funeral and memorial. So there are advantages, advantages, and disadvantages to technology. I wanted to consider a few of those for just a moment. I guess the greatest advantage, and Dr. Ramos pointed this out in his article, is that technology today has an opportunity to be missional in a way that we never thought possible. Now, when I was growing up, as we were getting ready for church, we would watch the gospel singing jubilee, for example, and we would watch church services that were on the television. And there was a local gospel station we had in Greenville near where I grew up. It had religious programming on it all the time. But now, now the opportunity is not just television programming, but the opportunity over the internet to take your services, to take your messages across not only the state, not only the nation, but across the world is just almost unimaginable. I find myself thinking of that potential online audience as I preach every Sunday. The gospel literally can go to every corner of the world now through the technology of the internet and the online presence that we can have. We can reach people all over the world. It's also a special opportunity for our shut-ins, those that physically cannot be able to come to church. I remember we used to record the service on a on a little cassette tape and we would take it to our shut-ins. But now we can teach our shut-ins how to watch it, to literally watch with the online presence from where they are. I had an opportunity to baptize someone recently who had just come to know the Lord in and in a skilled nursing facility. And my sister, through her ministry, faith and action, has been able to teach her how to find the service and go back and look at past services that we've had. And if on the occasion someone that is in church all the time is out of town, my wife and I are going to Panama City Beach in September, and we'll have an opportunity to watch our online service at Grace Global Methodist Church in Seneca, South Carolina, because of that online present. And that will be a very special gift to us. Now, some potential disadvantages to the technology that we have today. All of the things that I just mentioned, including my childhood experiences of church, we could miss out on those things. How about communion? We do communion every first Sunday, and it is such a special moment when we remember Jesus' first Lord's Supper with the disciples at that very pivotal point in his life as he's getting ready to go to the cross, and he experiences those moments with his disciples. Communion is very special for our congregation. We can't experience that except in person, being present, as I said, at baptisms and other special occasions. You see, the church makes commitments when we baptize somebody. When somebody comes to know the Lord Jesus Christ and they make their profession of faith, the church is professing also that they will be an example. And we don't want people throwing up their hands in a chat room to do that. We want them to be present, to be able to pray with them, to be able to celebrate with them, to be able to be the church. And as I mentioned, also just the experiencing in person that very presence of the Holy Spirit as the songs are sung, the prayers are prayed, and hopefully every Sunday, the gospel, the word of God is preached. So the purpose for me today is not to tell you what is right or what is wrong. My purpose today is to give you encouragement. Use technology to reach others. Use technology when it is particularly helpful to help you not be disconnected to church when you are away. But what I would also encourage you is do not use technology as an excuse to sleep late. Hebrews 10 25 says, For a reason, do not forsake the assembling together of the saints. We need to remember that verse, and I want to encourage you, if at all possible, to be in church this next Sunday. Also, I'd like to encourage you that if you are in the Seneca area, we would love for you to come visit us at Grace Global Methodist Church, 155 Thrift Avenue in Seneca, South Carolina, right beside Tractor Supply. We worship at 10 o'clock on Sunday mornings. Lots of great things are happening. We're going to have a new member Sunday here in just a couple of weeks on July the 26th. We're very excited about that. We'd love for you to join us. In the meantime, I want to encourage you to continue to listen to this podcast every week, also. You can find it on Spotify or on Apple Music, other platforms. It's the Power of One podcast with Tony Medlin. My website, Power of One Spiritual Renewal.com. The podcast is also uploaded on that. And I also would invite you to uh check out what the Power of One Business is all about as I focus on life coaching and helping people reach their goals, particularly their spiritual goals. Folks, it means a lot to me for you to take your time to listen to this podcast. And I'm glad and I'm honored that you are with me today. I hope you have a great rest of the week, and we'll look forward to seeing you right here next week on the Power of One podcast with Tony Medlin. God bless everyone.