Some folks dive right in and seem ready to start fulminating in every direction. But ... why?
Web campus technology and the idea of attending church "online" might be new, but apparently Leaping without Looking to Find Fault with Other Believers is older than dirt. Which could explain why there's so much dirt heaved so often in the direction of anything that's new or seemingly unfamiliar.
Their position loosely comes down to this: Is worshipping God during an online service actually participating in a church? Is sharing the gospel via an internet campus really scriptural, after all?
Well, is it?
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It's not difficult to accept that civilization was much different two thousand years ago when the Apostle Paul lived, travelled and preached the gospel. After all, modern technology doesn't have much in common with "ancient times" or "Bible days."
But it can be quite difficult for some folks with a "traditional" mindset to accept that during Paul's life, his civilization and his times were contemporary, modern, state of the art and totally high-tech, too.
Even if he never rode in a jet, Paul didn't cross the Mediterranean in a dug-out canoe or by straddling a log and paddling: no, Paul was a paying passenger aboard high-tech sea-going sailing ships ... complete with schedules, navigation, a rudder, sailing tackle, a captain and a crew of professional sailors (Acts 27 ).
Paul didn't have a cell phone, but then he didn't draw stick figures in the sand to communicate with church leaders, either. Paul instead relied on the "blog" of his day ... the pen and parchment.
Paul didn't have internet service or a web site, but then he wasn't scratching symbols and hieroglyphs on rock walls to let his friends know his plans and whereabouts, either. Instead Paul's "home page" consisted of handwritten letters dispatched by courier ... the first century A.D.'s version of "connectivity."
Paul was so in love with Christ that I have no doubts whatsoever that if the internet had existed back in Paul's day, he surely would've used it ... and any other technology he had available ... to spread the gospel, tell others about Jesus and bring people to Christ.
No doubts at all.
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This quote is secular, but I'm including it here because the point is applicable:
"You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus."
- Mark Twain
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Looking back over the inventions of the past two thousand years, I have a hard time figuring out why some folks still argue that "modern" (meaning, today's) technology, in whatever form, isn't a tool to be exploited for the advance of the kingdom .... and why technology "isn't scriptural," "can't do the job" and "isn't the same thing" ... when it comes to worshipping God, sharing the gospel and confessing our faith in Christ.
