Perhaps its just a case of doing this a bit too often. But, its Monday morning and I have moved the office to one of my favorite local coffeeshops (see #todaysoffice in Twitter). This is one of those days where you see many pastors come and also sit with themselves or others for the Monday morning quarterbacking session. You know, a little studying, reflection, and availability to process Sunday’s workings. Today I sit near a few pastors, all of whom have mobile tech in various forms being used.

A gentleman sitting by himself has a laptop and phone, but most of his reading and writing since I have been here has been on a paper newspaper and notebook. Interesting, because in this case, the tech is simply used to manage communications (emails, texts, or voice).

Two who are sitting near talking in a mentoring or counseling-like capacity. At different points, they have picked up their mobiles (iPhonrs) to look up information or coordinate dates. There was one point where they agreed to some date, then both went to inputting it within their devices.

Another person was in line fiddling on their mobile, until it was their time to order. After they ordered, they pulled out a card to make a payment and another loyality-like card.

There are some more folks here, and per usual, my antennas are up paying attention to these active and passive tech interactions. Sometimes, I sit and wonder where is a greater or deeper use of mobile in these moments:

• Would the first situation do better with a tablet that had a very high resolution screen, like the Google Nexus 10, for reading and big-screen communications?
• Could the two talking in the 2nd situation enable something better if they could use a shared calendar or one sends the other the calendar item directly to the other’s mobile using Bluetooth or SMS?
• There is no loyality card app or service this small business could use? Or, at least a means of the consumer getting a digital receipt from their credit card company which can work with a loyality app or Apple Passbook/mobile wallet program?

I see these potential mobile interactions and wonder where they are, or if they are too extra to the core action. Sometimes, they are. Other times, I see them as missed transactional opportunities that if we hit them now, that ministry applications can grow easier or fuller from these. Then again, its Monday. What might be missing moat in these observations is that all of these contexts endear a reflection on the tech that is healthy to see before the week begins.