Mobile Ministry Magazine

I figured that I would get started on tomorrow's post by opening up the tablet and reflecting a bit on a conversation that I had MOnday afternoon with one of my pastors.

I should probably give a bit of context though. Wellspring Community Church is in a lot of respects more virtual than many other churches that I have been a part of. A good deal of the work at this point is done by small teams and administered over a series of emails and phone conversations. So much so that there is no real physical office, but the pastors work in Google Office for a good bit of the time when not doing a specific program.

My pastor and I talked about how this type of working throws other pastors in the area off a bit. Part of it is because the idea of working in the virtual office of the Internet is still quite new to most people. And especially in the circles of religion and community life, having an office and being "seen" in the office is how people perceive work to be done. My pastors are a lot like myself though in that we are a bit ahead of the curve in terms of using tech and faith, and this presents some challenges and opportunities to doing ministry in a recognizable fashion.

Recognizable fashion? Yes. You see, here in the Bible belt (Charlotte), the common form of pastors is having an office, probably at a church or attached building, during the week and then be out in the community for special events. To actually make the community, local businesses and the interactions with people in them, part of the church office, one can effectively take down some of those barriers to seeing how church works. In addition, this view puts a more realistic view on pastoring as an occupation where boundaries and time management are viable issues, not just ones spoken from the pulpit and listen with "assumed ears."

Now, my pastor and I did agree in our conversation that this type of working is probably more indicative of how many more pastors will work in the future (domestically). Releasing resources needed for maintaining office space, and understanding the place for technology to serve ministry efforts will be something that is going to be more of an instinctive activity within the next generation of pastors. And that will bring with it its own pitfalls and successes. The key in seeing this change is figuring out what works best and then moving in the direction that best serves the Body.

Towards the end of the conversation, my pastor mentioned that he really wants to pull the trigger on getting the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet. He does exactly one thing that requires MS Word, and everything else is done with Google's applications. He sees the freedom and versatility of the mobile technology to further enable him to walk out towards connecting and empowering the Charlotte community.

To that end, I see what I do with MMM as very important. We have identified that aspects of faith will indeed be better served with mobile technology. And as ministers, laypersons, missionaries, and organizations move further into the connected way of life (media, internet, mobility, etc.), understanding the tools and the effects they will have on just simple behaviors will be vital.

We are ambassadors of mobile pastoring it seems. Amazing what these little devices expose our faith and lives towards growing into.