From Sampler to Sower

Recently my very good friend Todd Owens upgraded his cell phone. After 29 years of carrying the Palm Uno, he moved into the 21st century by upgrading to a Motorola Droid 2.  (Okay, so maybe it was a Treo, but barely….)  It wasn’t long before he was texting me to ask what apps were most helpful for youth ministry.  Which got me thinking: Blog post?  Apparently the answer is yes.  So here they are, my can’t work without apps.

Astrid: The first app I downloaded to my Droid is perhaps the best of them all.  Astrid is the To-Do list of the 23rd century.  Features I like the best? The widget puts to-do list on my home screen; the app features the ability to prioritize tasks, schedule repeating tasks, and list according to context; and it syncs with Remember the Milk, so my wife can add things to my to-do list as well; and finally, setting both goal and final deadlines reminds you lest you forget something important. (Granted RTM has since released a Droid app, but Astrid works so well, I’ve not even considered changing.

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I saw a post the other day on the Swerve blog from Lifechurch’s innovation leader (and fellow former Decaturian) Bobby Gruenewald about a time when the Presbyterian Church took official action against the dangers of riding your bicycle on Sunday.  Bobby sees in this bit of arcane Americana a reflection of how the church often responds to innovation.  He writes:

It speaks volumes about how the Church reacts to innovation at times. Instead of embracing it and looking for ways to leverage it, we feel threatened.

Obviously, this kind of reaction reminds us of cell phones in church.  But that is beginning to change.

After years of slides, videos and announcements asking people to turn off their cell phones and pagers, we’re seeing more and more stories these days about churches that are telling people to turn on their cell phones.  From encouraging people to tweet about their worship experience to using SMS polls to solicit instant responses from the congregation, to the creation of YouVersion Live, a fascinating mashup of Scripture and Social Media, the signs of a turning in the tide are everywhere.

It’s no secret our youth ministry has been asking the question “How can we leverage SMS and MMS technology for the kingdom?“  Last Lent we started asking the question “How can we make sure the next time one of our students pulls out their cell phone to tell a friend ‘Hey check this out’ that the content they are sharing comes from Water’s Edge?”  We’re still asking that question.  Our You Decide series is also trying to leverage SMS technology to engage students in community and conversation.  But we’ve still got a long way to go.

Here are some ideas we and others have used to try to leverage the ubiquitous cell phone technology rather than try to fight it.  Some of them are just for fun, to get people talking. “You wouldn’t believe what we did at Water’s Edge this week.”  Others are more directly related to our attempts to minister to our teens or reach out to others.

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