A blog? “Social media”? I never really thought of myself as “old school”, but neither have been a technological junkie. Though the world has been quickly changing around me, my role as a local church pastor remained largely the same for the last twenty-two years. In that role, I learned (sometimes a little slowly) how to adapt to the changes around me and take some advantage to the growing technological revolution. At the same time, I had certain rules or practices that seemed to work effectively in the local church that I diligently followed and rarely changed. But now my role has changed. My ministry is now spread out over nine counties and eighty-two churches, hence I’ve come to realize at least some of my rules (practices) for doing ministry must also change. So I’ve called on some “younger” more innovative minds for help, and in the beginning this is what we’ve come up with: a blog. Thanks to Josh Burnham (LifeSpring UMC) for helping me get started. So I’ll be regularly sharing thoughts, ideas, encouragement, prayers, invitations, and information via this medium.
My reluctance to invest the time and energy needed to learn about and utilize new technology for ministry makes me think of that odd comment Jesus made in the “parable of the dishonest manager” (Luke16), “for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.” Because we live in a changing world, good leaders are certainly always looking for ways to capture innovative secular ideas and pressing them into the service of the gospel. That being said, the rule of relational leadership and ministry never changes. We can never substitute technology for personal attention and building relationships of trust that enable us to lead. It may be however that we can use new technology to enhance communication and shared ideas in the building and maintaining of those relationships. So I invite you to sign up for my blog update notifications to be emailed to you as I adapt some new technology to some old rules (relational leadership) in a new role.
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