Taking photos in church? Yes, please!!!!!

In some churches, it is common to have technology Sundays, where everyone is encouraged to bring their phones and tablets, maybe even laptops, and to take pictures, Tweet, go on Facebook. For some churches, every Sunday is this, where people are Tweeting things the pastor says or words to a song that move them and posting pictures of the happenings on Instagram. For some of us of a different generation, these might seem distracting or disrespectful. However, for younger people, it feels normal for them to do this, since they do it everywhere else in their lives; in fact, one of our members regularly “checks-in” to worship on our Facebook page as a reminder to others that we are still worshiping.

The Church can be a model for when it is appropriate to use phones and tablets, and when it is appropriate to put them away and be centered on and aware of the spirit. For most of us, worship is a time to put away the blinking, buzzing, bothersome tech toys and be with the people around us.

For a moment, though, I’m going to argue that we could use a bit more phones and tablets in our worship and in our social gatherings.

One of the things that Jacob and I run into as we try to make our online presence attractive is that we have only a few great photos of our congregational life together. When I remember to ask someone to take photos of a specific event, we get some great pictures of people. And then there are the times I forget, which is most of the time. We could use your pictures! Take out your camera-phones and start snapping! forward them to Jacob via e-mail or upload them to Facebook (we can download them from there).

While we’re on the subject of Facebook, if you are on Facebook, make sure you like the Arlington Community Church page. We are posting events, sermons, the Parishscope, and words of encouragement from our denominational contacts. When something gets posted there, it is great when you like it; it is even better if you share it to your page because that gets more exposure for the content. In effect your Facebook posts are public reminders of what you like, and I hope you like Arlington Community Church!!!

Peace,

Pastor Tony