Using Technology In a Traditional Church Service

As for my church, every way you mentioned.  Sermons are posted to Vimeo and linked to our website and they also live stream on Facebook.  This is done to accommodate our infirm members, those too sick to attend.  We started with one screen and then later added two more above the choir loft.  No rock and roll stage, a piano on one side and an organ on the other.

I think it a great mistake for believers to trade the bible in a book format for one in electronic format.  It's hard to grow intimate with the pages when you have none, with the leather when all you have is glass and plastic dependent on electricity.

Don't remove the ancient landmarks!

Good article and good information.

Our Sunday services are live on YouTube. We have a facebook page and a screen behind pastor with messages and reminders. I think it needs to be shut off during the sermon. I don't think it's needed either. All the news, etc. is in the paper bulletin. Thankfully, people viewing online can't see the screen from the lights hanging above. 

I'm also one who would prefer everyone use a paper Bible. No one is going to learn the order of books on an e-book. We have one lady who specifically uses an e-bible because she has very bad vision, which is fine. But teens and new believers need to learn the basic placings of the Books of the Bible. Which is not possible if all you have to do is enter the verse and it just pops up.

But my pastor puts his sermons on a pad and if the pad's not working, he's lost.  And we have to wait for it to load, etc. This is the first church where the preacher doesn't go from an actual book. He should print out his highlights and reference so he's not totally dependent on technology.

Nothing better to hear when pastor says "please go to such and such" and you hear the ruffling of pages.:)

We have an excellent quality digital soundboard and make good CD copies, but our dream is to have a Website where we could post sermons and such that is password protected for just members.  We have no one in our church with the technical skills to design a site though.  Any suggestions on a good professional with pricing would be appreciated.  I doubt we could ever think of live streaming.  Our Pastor is not shy about preaching the whole counsel of God and some of his sermons would have protesters picketing our church or worse if he is speaking about Islam and other religions.

We have a Facebook page that I post on a few times a week. Most of our members do not have Facebook pages, so it's hard to get followers. It is growing slowly, though. 

We don't have a website yet, but the tech guy in the church that founded ours has volunteered to create one for us. 

That's about it. I did start a Twitter account but don't use it. I know I should, though.

Websites (or at least a Facebook page) are a requirement nowadays, I think. If I'm searching for a church to visit, I won't even consider any that I can't first look up their statement of faith and peruse their website.  But the website needs to look like it was updated within the last 15 years!  

On 3/16/2019 at 1:27 PM, 2bLikeJesus said:

We have an excellent quality digital soundboard and make good CD copies, but our dream is to have a Website where we could post sermons and such that is password protected for just members.  We have no one in our church with the technical skills to design a site though.  Any suggestions on a good professional with pricing would be appreciated.  I doubt we could ever think of live streaming.  Our Pastor is not shy about preaching the whole counsel of God and some of his sermons would have protesters picketing our church or worse if he is speaking about Islam and other religions.

I will ask our pastor who they used. A 14 year old boy runs all our video/facebook/live streaming/youtube live, website, etc.! So it can't be too hard.

4 hours ago, Miss Daisy said:

A 14 year old boy runs all our video/facebook/live streaming/youtube live, website, etc.! So it can't be too hard.

The 14 year old boy probably has over 10+ years of experience with technology though. Its not that hard for those gowning up using it but can be pretty tricky for those not used to being around the technology.

On 3/16/2019 at 1:27 PM, 2bLikeJesus said:

We have an excellent quality digital soundboard and make good CD copies, but our dream is to have a Website where we could post sermons and such that is password protected for just members.  We have no one in our church with the technical skills to design a site though.  Any suggestions on a good professional with pricing would be appreciated.  I doubt we could ever think of live streaming.  Our Pastor is not shy about preaching the whole counsel of God and some of his sermons would have protesters picketing our church or worse if he is speaking about Islam and other religions.

I talked to my pastor and they used a $50 word press theme. He learned how to do it on wpbeginner.com

You could let a young person, familiar with current technology, set it up for you. 

We video record the sermons and I download them to Facebook and YouTube. I would like to livestream but I don't know how, and my resident techie moved away recently. Being a very small church I tend to have to do everything, include keep the webpage current, (when that happens), do the recording and uploading to the net, etc. I used to do powerpoint with a lot of my sermons but I have kind of slacked off from that recently due to some life changes that keep me busier than before. 

On 3/16/2019 at 6:27 PM, 2bLikeJesus said:

We have an excellent quality digital soundboard and make good CD copies, but our dream is to have a Website where we could post sermons and such that is password protected for just members.  We have no one in our church with the technical skills to design a site though.  Any suggestions on a good professional with pricing would be appreciated.  I doubt we could ever think of live streaming.  Our Pastor is not shy about preaching the whole counsel of God and some of his sermons would have protesters picketing our church or worse if he is speaking about Islam and other religions.

I don't agree.  How can Muslims believe if they cannot hear the gospel?    

Our pastor visits India rom time to time.and to get a visa he was  not allowed to preach outside the church.  However, unbeknown to him the church had rigged up large loudspeakers outside the church to broadcast his message.  Preachers in that country face 6 months in jail for preaching outside the church but the go to jail and when the come out they preach outsie again and then do another 6 months.

The church is to spread the word, not to keep it to members.

Luke 9:26

As addendum to my earlier post, I now livestream onto facebook-get a few people watching, not many.

My wife and I have been looking for a Baptist Church to belong to, but have given up in our area. One of the two that were KJV was a church called Victory Baptist. When we were searching, of course we used the internet, because the yellow pages are there as well. This church didn't have a web site, or even a Facebook page informing people of service times, church doctrine, etc. We found it, and went there for a couple of months. 

What we did find is that the pastor had a web site for his own family's ministry, where he sold his books and such, but nothing for his church. After attending for a while, I concluded that churches that don't even have a facebook page, let alone a web site, which are both free nowadays, have something to hide. 

Our First Baptist Church is now called "Wellspring Church". I have a feeling that they used to be baptist, now they are not, so they took the name off of the sign. Victory Baptist says "Independent" on their sign, and I have to wonder if they took the "fundamental" part off of the sign at some point. 

In my experience, the more technological a church is, the less fundamental they are, because the technology is part of the reason people come, not the doctrine, or the work being done in the churches. In my town, they have revolving "in" churches. It used to be the Calvary Chapel church, and then it switched to a church by the name of "Redeemers". The latest one I have heard about is called "Family Church". They have the music technology, the big screens, video satellite churhes,  etc etc. 

While it appears impossible to find a church that doesn't teach works salvation in my area, you can go enjoy some rock music and watch some video any time you want. 

Baptist churches are either taking baptist off the sign, or literally dying off, because your either take "baptist" and "fundamental" off the sign, or you shrink down to numbers that cannot pay the property taxes and light bill. I've been to a couple of them where it is just Bill, his wife, two kids, an 85 year old pastor, and the mother in law that are left. 

The problem with that church is that Bill's wife and mother in law are running the church, because the church will have nobody in it if the mother in law gets offended. I'm not exaggerating. I got yelled at by the mother in law in the bible study this Wednesday night because I mentioned that a woman should not be speaking and talking doctrine during church services, which is what their "sister" church did last Sunday night when we joined up with them. 

The woman literally yelled at me, telling me that it was fine because it was a praise service, and she was speaking at the music podium and not the pulpit. The three men kept silence in the church while two women were rebuking me. Can anyone one recognize a dead baptist church? Should I go to their sister church to see if the women rebuke men openly during Wed night bible study? 

If Baptist churches don't get more fundamental than they are, they are on their way out. Technology won't solve their problems. If they go full on technology as a means to attract people, they will no longer matter concerning the things of God. 

Use technology wisely. Get your name out with it. Let people know what you believe with it, but using it to attract people won't produce fruit for the kingdom of God, it will just attract shallow people, and when shallow people fill your church, you must know that you have become shallow, otherwise they would not be there. 

I use the Bible Gateway on my phone all the time, but couldn't imagine trying to give someone the gospel with it, therefor churches should not use electronic replacements. Show me a church that has replaced the paper bible with electronics, and I will show you a church that does not do soul winning. 

On 3/16/2019 at 11:27 AM, 2bLikeJesus said:

We have an excellent quality digital soundboard and make good CD copies, but our dream is to have a Website where we could post sermons and such that is password protected for just members.  We have no one in our church with the technical skills to design a site though.  Any suggestions on a good professional with pricing would be appreciated.  I doubt we could ever think of live streaming.  Our Pastor is not shy about preaching the whole counsel of God and some of his sermons would have protesters picketing our church or worse if he is speaking about Islam and other religions.

There is plenty of hard preaching against Islam and false religions online from church services. Nobody get picketed for it. The only picketing comes from pastors preaching hard against the sodomites. Even then , it doesn't last long, and the sodomites go back to their filthy deeds and leave them alone. 

A friend of mine that moved away from a church that has been picketed for preaching against the sodomites online just had to quit the only IFB church within three hours of where they now live because he found out that the pastor was allowing a convicted child molester and sodomite attend their church while keeping it from their members. 

Islam isn't our biggest problem. 

On 11/1/2019 at 4:02 PM, Paul Christian said:

Islam isn't our biggest problem. 

I agree.  Our biggest problem is creeping catholisicism.  I don't know about the situation in the town I have now lived for just over a year, but in my previous town, my previous church was an Independent Evangelical Church.  Both the Baptist Churches in the town were in Churhes together and gradually adopting Catholic practices such as Lent.  The Anglican church has a woman vicar and practise Mass and confessions.  I don't know anything about the Methodists ar any others but I expect they are no better.  Our church was the only one not in Churches together.  

Our present church is an Independent Baptist Church. 

One independent Baptist Church about 40 miles from here had a buiding that needed a great deal of cash for repairs which they did not have, so they now rent a room in a school.  The rent is now less than their heating bill was.

There are people who want to do great things for God. False religion has always been the biggest enemy of the gospel, but Baptist’s are repenting from grace unto a repentance of sins for salvation, rather than faith alone, which is false religion. 
 

In the Bible, the Jews themselves were the primary enemy of the gospel, and were a false religion because of their rejection of faith.

False Baptist religion cannot compete with false ecumenical religion, and since God cannot bless false Baptist salvation, they will die off.

I think we’re getting a bit off topic here, and the repentance reference will likely take it further off. Let’s keep this thread to the technology subject; if anyone would like to discuss repentance/doctrine or issues in churches, they are welcome to start new threads. 

The Church I am a member of has a Facebook page that they use for live streaming, website, a couple of televisions (nothing over the top), and the good old fashioned Church bulletin. However, I do get the sense from certain members that they want to "modernize" the Church even more with all the stage lighting and such (which I am not in favor of). I don't want to be legalistic about it but I just want to make sure we stay grounded on the Bible. I agree technology is great when used to advance the Kingdom of God and not used to look worldly.