The message and the medium

The passing of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs earlier this week sent me down memory lane as I thought about how the invention of the personal computer changed the newspaper industry — not to mention my own personal communications, as well as worship and the church.

In 1996, my then home church Middlebrook Pike United Methodist in Knoxville launched an alternative worship service that engaged digital imagery, not just the projecting of lyrics. Today, such use of imagery is commonplace in worship, not only in megachurches, but small churches as well.

But then technology has not only influenced how we worship, but also how we communicate within the community of faith and relaying the Gospel to the world. From blogs, to Facebook, to YouTube and beyond, the Gospel is being proclaimed globally in bits and bytes through websites, emails, feeds, and digital newsletters, just to name a few of the technological communication devices.

And if we have the imagination to conceive such a thing, perhaps throughout eternity and beyond as the bits and bytes make their way into the heavens through mobil data streams riding the airwaves into who knows where.

What an incredible thought ...

(Incidentally, check out this cartoon by the prepress manager at the Boston Herald.