Jay has some good thoughts on church culture and technology usage. The email was to a group that had been discussing some ideas for doing a Methodist Blogger Event, and Cole had expressed frustration about the Southern Baptists getting an article in the Tennessean about one of their execs that has a blog and was talking about the use of new technologies.

Only Wonder Understands: It Ain’t About Technology!

What I was trying to express in the e-mail that I sent was a concern regarding a culture in the United Methodist Church that isn’t able to respond quickly to change. Now there is some value to this — the church probably should be a voice of caution, considering the ethical implications of new trends or technologies. Yet, given the speed of cultural change, those considerations must come more quickly, or else the church finds itself left behind, always playing catch-up, and never being on the cutting edge of any cultural movement.

The issue for me is not about who has the coolest stuff, but rather who has the willingness to create a culture that can be missionally focused. It’s not surprising that the Southern Baptists are “ahead” of the curve technologically for their ethos includes a willingness to take on new forms in order to carry out their mission in the world. Methodists, on the other hand, plod along, creating a committee to study everything so that by the time they’ve finally gotten around to adopting a new thing, the next trend has come along.

Thing about our structures. Our budgets nationally are determined on a quadrennial basis (four years). These days, four years is a long time. The first I-Pods were released four years ago, but they are transforming the music business, radio distribution, etc. How can an institution that only meets every four years respond to the speed of cultural change today?

Go read the whole “It Ain’t About Technology!” post in the above link on Jay’s blog

Gavin was blogging on this same conversation here