Computer savvy

Christian Century, Feb 7, 2001 by Nancy S. Armstrong, Aaron R. Spiegel, John R. Wimmer

OTHER INTERNET technologies are affecting congregational communication dramatically. But most churches that maintain congregational Web sites tend to use them for communicating with members about fellowship and upcoming events rather than as outreach tools. One church sent its youth group on a mission trip to South America and wanted to keep the congregation informed about the group's activities. The group's leaders sent daily digital pictures from the mission site, accompanied by e-mails that summarized the group's activities, described their feelings and experiences, introduced village children to the folks back home and asked for prayers. The messages were posted on the church's Web site each day of the trip. Back home a spontaneous gathering began to take place. Daily, the parents of the youth and others gathered in the church to learn the latest news and to pray for the youth and for the people of the village they were serving.

* Learning Labs. To our surprise, a quarter of the congregations that applied to the Indianapolis Center's computer grants program wanted either to establish or to improve a learning lab. Many of them wanted to use the lab both as an outreach program for the surrounding community and as a tool for Christian education within the congregation. African-American churches that serve impoverished urban areas argue compellingly that many kids in their neighborhoods are left out of the "digital revolution" because they do not have home computers. Labs in these churches, available for after-school and other programs for youth, can help close this digital divide.

But many parishes and synagogues recognize that the digital divide is generational as well as economic. Some churches are establishing labs for senior citizens as well as for seniors in high school. It is not uncommon for a church computer lab to be used in the mornings by elderly people who are learning to e-mail their grandchildren and in the evenings by a youth group playing Bible software games. In one church's computer lab, the youth group serves as the teachers and the senior citizens are the students. While worship issues often divide churches along generational lines, many congregations are finding ways for computer technology to bridge generational divides.

Parishes and churches that run parochial schools are working especially hard at using computer labs. One large Catholic parish in Indianapolis is designing a new library featuring a computer lab to serve both parish and school. The church envisions it as a place where young and old, parishioner and student are all engaged in the common task of growing in knowledge and in faith.

* Multimedia presentations for worship and education. This is the glitziest application of computer technology, one that even very traditional congregations are seeking to use. Software such as Powerpoint, coupled with projectors or large-screen televisions, are increasingly being used to replace worship bulletins, provide visual sermon outlines, display songs and music, and show illustrative video dips (now cataloged and available through several companies that provide video illustrations online). Similar multimedia applications--assisted by ever-expanding numbers of software programs--are being used more and more in congregational education programs. Awkward (and often outdated) pull-down maps for Sunday school classes, for example, are being replaced by software-generated images of the ancient Near East, whereby Bibles students can trace the missionary journeys of Paul or follow the exodus route of the Israelites. Classrooms of children can take part in an interactive encounter within Noah's Ark, face down lions with Daniel, or take part in a host of other games that enhance biblical literacy. As one church in Indianapolis advertises, "This is not the church you grew up in!"