Within the ornate and powerful sanctuaries of America's churches, a strange and wonderful phenomenon is occurring. Where once you would be greeted with the melodic ruffling of a hundred Bible's pages all turning in unison, there is now the occasional blip or bleep of a Pocket PC. As members get more and more comfortable with this new guest in their church, they are beginning to see the value that these devices can bring.
As the owner of a consulting firm that deals in the health and growth of church and nonprofit organizations, I know how Pocket PC technology can be of great benefit to my clients. As the members of a new, technologically savvy generation enter adulthood, there will be a shift in the paradigm with regard to how they "do church." This leaves us with an interesting dichotomy that some call "ancient-future" thinking. We have begun to blend the best of the historic with the best of the technological. The results may not be evident for some time, but I believe we can already see in the Pocket PC some of the benefits of this revolution.
As churches grow and reach a more diverse group of people, pastors have begun to specialize. At the same time their need to keep in close contact with multiple staff performing specialized functions has grown. As my secretary once threatened me, "You may know where you are going. And God may know where you are going. But if I don't know where you are going, you and God had better be good friends!" Using a Pocket PC to upload your calendar to a LAN at the church, as well as coordinate projects in real time, can result in a dramatic increase in the productivity of your staff. And in some instances keep you healthy!
By tracking the schedules of staff members, some of my clients have been able to increase pastoral contact with shut-ins, hospitalized members, and others while reducing wasteful overlap in pastors' schedules. During my pastoral career it was not uncommon for me to show up at a hospital room only to be greeted by another member of my staff. If I had known they were planning hospital calls in the morning, I could have gone in the afternoon, resulting in better care for our people overall. Additionally, I have seen organizations require multiple meetings to get input on collaborative documents, marketing, and so on. We have helped our clients eliminate many of these meetings by doing the work on a Pocket PC and sharing the results later within the group, adding to the time they spend on the street rather than in the boardroom.
As a staff pastor for a church reaching nearly 400 people it was not uncommon to receive more than 20 e-mails a day. With my Pocket PC I was able to download my e-mail in the morning and use my newfound mobility to beat one of the biggest killers facing businessmen as well as pastors—downtime! In addition to letting them read and answer e-mail, the ability of Pocket PCs to act as e-books allows my clients to carry large portions of their library with them, helping them to do research and planning for Sunday morning's service. Finally, when the sermon has been written they can use presentation software to prepare Power Point slides on the fly.
Churches are starting to realize that people learn better if there is more going on during the sermon than just the speaker. Some churches have gladly embraced the use of a Pocket PC, a FlyJacket, and a projector on Sunday morning to improve the sermon by having notes on PowerPoint and using graphic and audio samples to make points stronger and more memorable. One pastor I know was discussing the way some people view the church, so he added clips from John Lennon's song "Imagine" and used PowerPoint slides to show the lyrics and other images that added to the overall picture he was trying to draw with his message. This kind of technique ultimately holds the interest of a congregation while at the same time improving retention from the Sunday lesson.
Printer-friendly version