He’s Talking About Your Souls, People
Sorry, more Q content being uploaded.
As a follow up to the conference and the presentation “The Spirituality of the Cell Phone,” I’m reading Shane Hipps’ book, Flickering Pixels.
It’s making me think critically about technology and media. The awesome thing is that Shane is much deeper than reflecting on Twitter and Facebook, he’s spent more than ample time exploring the major technological shifts of history(print—radio—television—digital—beyond).
If there’s one thing I walked away from Shane’s presentation with, it’s that technology divides us. It doesn’t multiply us and (always) make us more efficient, it compartmentalizes us and pulls us in several directions.
He said that God is a God of the present. He won’t primarily be found in “the figment of the past or the fantasy of the future.”
And when we’re sitting in a room with our wives and kids but we are Twittering on our iPhones, we are somehow insanely absent.
When I’m sitting at a restaurant with a friend and I’m texting my wife or taking a phone call, I’ve mentally and spiritually vacated the place. He/she is now eating alone.
The saddest thing is that, walking away from that presentation, I kept hearing things like “that was cool and all, but I’m glad to have my cell phone back.” (oh yeah, they took our cell phones for the evening)
Or, “but this stuff does amazing things in our ministry.”
And that’s how the banter continued. Everyone was ready to concede some truth to Shane, but ready to take the defensive position on media/technology and its usefulness in their ministries.
I wanted to grab someone and shake them.
People, he’s not talking about effectiveness in your ministries. He’s talking about the fact that it’s killing your soul.
HE’S TALKING ABOUT YOUR SOULS, PEOPLE!
How obtuse are we?
Now, Shane does spend time in his book talking on critically thinking about how we use technology and media as Christians. And he acknowledges that there is a good way to use it. He’s not against using media in churches.
Are we so pragmatic that we can’t see the big picture? We’re losing our souls.
Our souls are dying.
Dying to productivity.
And obsessive self-images.
And addiction.
Our souls are dying and all we can do is squabble about what “works.”
I love my iPhone. It can make me great at my job. And terrible at interacting with God’s presence around me.
Here’s to choosing my soul. Who’s with me?
I'm a runner, writer, thinker, and pastor. I love to agitate people's consciences. I like to spend my time reading, running, and relaxing with family & friends.