Many churches are making use of current technology in their worship services.  Video screens, projectors, streaming audio and video, and other tools have been embraced as means of communicating the gospel either in person, over closed-circuit television feeds, or even the Internet.

Opinions vary over the appropriateness of the use of these approaches, and the degree to which they should be employed in church services.

A pastor in Mitchellville, Maryland remarked, "I feel like it's too much and it takes over the worship.  People will just be sitting there, their eyes fixated on the screen.  They're waiting to be given something, rather than participating."

Some sixty percent of churches are online with a website, high-volume email capability, and the like.  Some provide downloadable files of services and sermons.  Crews of techo-wizards run the boards at some of the megachurches because, as sociologist Scott Thumma put it, "This is not church like your grandparents did it.  This has something to say about life today."

In one case, the folks in the pews were invited to send text-messages to the pastor as he was preaching on a particular Sunday, and he worked their comments into his sermon.  Talk about multi-tasking!  "Prayer is supposed to be a conversation," said the pastor.  "We did this to help people engage in the conversation live during the service."

The article containing all of this information shared a variety of viewpoints and experiences along the lines of technologically enhanced worship services.  Some, of course, lamented the "entertainment" aspect of it all.  Others saw this approach as the wave of the future, with great promise for attracting people.

No one addressed the issue of community. 

It seems as if people are viewing worship as an individualistic endeavor, to be experienced either in a group where everyone's attention is focused on a flickering image, or in isolation in front of the computer screen at home or elsewhere apart from the actual church building.

I have no doubt that worship services always can be improved and that ways of greater relevance can be found.  Likely, the use of current technology can help on both fronts.  But, I think we must remember always that people are in this together.  The church is not merely a gaggle of consumers of religious products.

The church is a people drawn together under God, sharing worship, spiritual growth, and life in relationship with our Creator and with one another.