Tech Table Thursday, April 10, 2014
April 10, 2014
Justin: Welcome to MPA’s Tech Table. I’m Justin.
Diana: And I’m Diana.
Justin: And we’re your hosts. We’ll be serving up a heaping spoonful of all things tech.
Diana: We promise it’ll be easy to digest. Hello.
Justin: Hello, Diana. It’s Thursday.
Diana: Yes. How are you doing today?
Justin: I’m okay. You are sleepy.
Diana: I’m a little sleepy.
Justin: This entire week you’re just sleeping.
Diana: It’s been a busy week.
Justin: It has been a busy week but a fun week, good times.
Diana: It is good times.
Justin: It’s Thursday which means we’re talking about a theme. Theme Thursday.
Diana: Any theme goes.
Justin: Yeah. So, today we’re going to talk about the fact that Psalm Sunday is coming.
Diana: It is.
Justin: That time of year.
Diana: April 13th I believe.
Justin: Yeah, and so we’re talking about online church. I mean churches are hip these days.
Diana: Yes.
Justin: There’s all sorts of different things that churches, the old fashioned brick and motor churches, do. Old fashioned brick and motor. But that traditional churches do. Most of them have web presences and things like that. A lot of them put their sermons in podcasts that you can download or stream off their website. Sometimes they even do that with their worship music. Churches have all sorts of things. Some of them broadcast their sermons on the radio. That’s a more traditional method. But now we actually have churches that are online.
Diana: Online based?
Justin: Online based. Right. Exactly. One of our team members back at the office recently read an article that raised some interesting questions and so we’re going to talk about that.
Diana: Yeah.
Justin: Yeah. So, the original is titled, “Is an Online Church Really a Church?”. Oh boy, well, let’s not get too deep into this.
Diana: Yeah. No, and that’s not what we’re going to answer today.
Justin: Ed [unclear 00:01:37] wrote that and it was published at christianitytoday.com so, of course, christianitytoday.com, that’s a very worthwhile publication.
Diana: Yeah, a very respected source.
Justin: Absolutely, and that was published just a week ago.
Diana: Yes.
Justin: So it’s pretty fresh but it’s interesting. Of course, there’s a ton of opinions about this but we’re not really going to delve into that.
Diana: No.
Justin: So, what are we going to talk about, Diana?
Diana: Well, while there are a lot of differing opinions about churches being online for their service or however they want to do it, we don’t, of course, feel like it’s adequate for us to determine what’s the best fit for you. But one thing to consider is the fact that if a church is not online it’s not actually engaging the culture person to person. If that’s something that a person needs and feeds off of then an online church is probably not going to be a good fit so just something to consider.
Justin: An online church would work well if you are, for instance, not able to go anywhere, if you’re a shut-in.
Diana: Maybe ill or just unable to get out.
Justin: Yeah, things like that. People will say you can’t build a community with online church, like the traditional. Going to church you have your church family.
Diana: Right.
Justin: But I think with online church nowadays people build community through the online church has discussions online.
Diana: Just like any social forum really.
Justin: Exactly. Yeah, the probably have Twitter. A lot of churches have Twitter anyway. Twitter and Facebook and it can be all interactive and you can actually, yeah, have a church family and go to an online church.
Diana: Right. Yeah. I think the thing just to keep in mind is with an online church and doing any sort of social forums online, sometimes you start to lose sight of the fact that these are real people that are on the internet and the web doing these things.
Justin: Right. Exactly.
Diana: So, if you just keep in mind they are actual real people it shouldn’t be too big of a problem.
Justin: And what I always say is with anyone you hear preaching on the radio, anyone you hear preaching on TV, or any online church or thing or a church you visit on Sunday morning in your hometown, check out the doctrine and make sure that you agree with it.
Diana: Absolutely.
Justin: That’s the most important thing so keep an eye on that. Until next time…
Diana: Take care.
Justin: Tech Table is brought to you by MPA of Bloomfield, Iowa, and God’s Country Radio. You can visit us online at askmpa.com.
Diana: If you have questions or comments, please send them to questions@askmpa.com. That’s questions@askmpa.com.
Justin: And thanks for listening.
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