Father, Husband, Son
I designed this image for a series on the seven deadly sins at the
Glendale Church of Christ. I wanted the artwork to be simple and convey a sense of loneliness and isolation.
It was used on social media, the web, and as part of the worship presentation.
I just read this article from ChristianToday.com:
Want your church to grow? Then it’s time to surprise people…
I thought this quote was particularly interesting.
Let’s be clear and honest with ourselves. Most of our friends and colleagues have no idea about how great our churches are. How surprised they would actually be by some of the small, but important things on offer.
A warm welcome. A decent cup of coffee. A chat with normal, nice people from all walks of life (who may or may not be wearing sandals). We have music which might confound expectations. We look out for each other’s wellbeing in a way which is profoundly counter-cultural. Far from being cold, boring and out of touch, we offer the chance to be part of an institution which cares about its local community, and ultimately, an opportunity to experience the love of God.
We need to do a better job telling our story.
We need to sell ourselves, our experience and our God.
I think, as a whole, we’ve been doing a poor job of that.
It’s time to reevaluate our plan.
In Matthew 28:19 Jesus instructs his disciples to “go and make disciples of all nations.”
With the internet, we have the tools to communicate the message of Christ across the globe, but there is also a “nation” in our midst that we need to reach.
The results of a study on Teens and Tweens (Ages 8 to 18) by Common Sense Media were released this past week. They found that tweens spend on average 6 hours in front of screens, and teens about 9 hours. Whether on computers, tablets or smartphones 39% of teen’s digital screen time is devoted to watching, listening, or reading, 24% to playing games or browsing the web and 26% to social media. They also found that mobile devices made up 41% of all screen time for tweens and 46% for teens.
With so much time devoted to screens and mobile devices, it’s time to start thinking seriously about how and where we communicate the message of Christ to this young generation. We need to travel to their “nation” to share the message of Christ.
Now, I am not saying we abandon all the tried and true practices of the past. We just need to look for ways these new tools for communication can assist us in our efforts.
Here’s an interesting study on teens and media from Common Sense Media.
