I am hearing that group registrations are strong. This is great news! I am guessing that within your church group, there are people with different skill sets and interests. You will have selected your Create Conference program accordingly, desiring to be a better writer, video producer, web designer, graphic designer, event manager or ideas generator. Whilst these sessions are being run in isolation, in practice creative disciplines work closely together in teams. I work with writers, web developers, photographers, illustrators and strategic thinkers on a daily basis. It is not just about complementary skills, but about sharing and evaluating ideas. We don’t even have to be precious about who does what. Dare I say it but who says a writer can not have input into the layout of an advertisement, or that a graphic designer can not come up with a great copy line. Working in teams is exciting and rewarding. How much more exciting when our aim is to communicate the gospel and what a ‘key message’ we have – God’s love for us in Christ! 

The other day I found myself in a new situation…

My wife was traveling to a church camp on the central coast and had got lost. She had rung me on a mobile phone for directions. I had then logged onto my wireless internet connection and google mapped the place and was able to direct her to where she had to go. I then used street view to have a look around the place!

It struck me what an incredible thing I had done. Using new technology I had been able to use a map that was stored on a computer half way round the world to remotely guide my wife to where she wanted to go from the comfort of my own lounge!! I couldn’t have done it last year, I might not have been able to do it six months ago but I was able to do it that day. I wonder what I will be able to do tomorrow? or next year?

Its the nature of the world we live in - particularly in this internet age - that things are changing and changing rapidly. And this change is changing the way we think, act and relate.

So how as Christians do we cope with change? After all we know the old joke “How many ministers does it take to change a light bulb? None because the church changes nothing.” How do we take advantage of what the internet has become for the gospel? Or more importantly how do we set ourselves up for the changes that will come in the future?

Any thoughts?

All I know is that there are no sure fire models for ministry on the internet and there is no one person who has all the answers.

cheers

David Horne