Talent & Technology

Some get miffed by the color of the carpet.

Some are disappointed that the piano is on the left side of the sanctuary.

Some winced because I just called it “the sanctuary.”

Many dislike many, many things.

But the newest thing people have begun to lose their mind about is technology and performance, or the combination thereof, in worship services and churches. They think this is a new argument or trend or bandwagon to get on. They think that it’s cool to want a “simpler” church where the music is dull, the sound system shrieks, and the TVs are absent. Which personally, I think is hilarious for innumerable reasons, here’s a few:

1.They are usually whining about it on Twitter, Facebook, or their blog. Which they do from their smart phone or Mac Book. They own the latest technology, but the church should not.

2.They watch their favorite famous preachers get fired up about it on their 50” flat-screen, L.E.D. TV. They have 4-5 TVs in their 2,500 square foot house, but the church should not have 25 in a building ten times that size.

3.They don’t have any music in their iTunes library that makes them cringe. Yet, when a church service is done with excellence and talent, they call it a performance and dismiss its validity.

4.They don’t really care about their “cause” because the only place they stand up for it is on the internet, where they can hide behind the anonymity.

So in summary: they can pursue the latest technology, buy the biggest TVs, trick out their cars with the loudest stereo systems, buy lots of quality mainstream music—but the church, who is trying to reach the lost of this culture, this culture that is pursuing those same things, cannot spend any money to do so. In my mind this is so hypocritical. They expect every movie they see, all the music they listen to, all of the experiences they have outside of the church building to be done with excellence and pride, and ridicule it when it doesn’t live up to that standard. Yet, when they step inside the church building, they want no technology or talent, because that is trying to “add something to the Gospel.”

The reality is guys, that there are churches that pursue technology for the wrong reasons—not to reach the lost, but to puff themselves up. I understand the problem there. There are churches that waste money. I understand the problem there. And there are churches that perform instead of worship on Sunday mornings.(By the way, Elevation Church may not do everything right , but that Easter Sunday they donated 18,000 items to help out needy in their community and had a large number of genuine salvations). However, just because some fail doesn’t mean all do.

So before you soapbox about technology and talent in a church, take a look at yourself in the mirror and ask yourself what’s really bothering you. Because really, our own lives water down the Gospel way more than any church with any amount of talent or technology has. Blaming church leaders for spending money isn’t going to make us feel better.

If at the end of the day, after you have dealt with your own junk, you still feel convinced that they are wasting money, go talk to them about it. As ministers of the Gospel, your church leadership would be open to listen to your concerns and take them to heart, and explain to you why things are done the way they are. And after you do that, if you still feel unsettled about the way your church does things, find a new place to worship and stop publicly whining about the former one. Because no matter how angry or upset you are, or how wrong they may really be, there is no excuse for judgmentally bashing Christ’s bride in any medium.