How Smartphones Are Changing Christianity
By Gbemisola Isaacs
I was in church today and during the service, the Pastor asked us to open a Chapter of the Bible, I noticed ninety percent of the church reached out for their phones. For a moment, I thought the Pastor had given an order I wasn’t aware of. It took a while till I realized that they were only trying to read the Bible from their phones.
When it was time to pay offerings and tithes to the church, a projected screen was used to display the church’s account details with procedures as to how a mobile transaction is made.
These days, almost everyone has a mobile phone. Smartphones can do amazing things, much more than they could do even a few years ago.
The mobile phone Bible is now replacing the bound Bible, mobile transaction is now replacing the traditional way of paying offerings.
While I think these are good ideas and faiths are adopting online technologies to make it easier for people to communicate ideas and worship, some people think otherwise. They say, cell phones are major distraction to the Christian faith with its inevitable phone call, notifications, texts, emails, and other alerts in the middle of prayer time.
Meanwhile, some churches say they have used a mobile device to connect with faith or inspiration during Sunday services. Many think sharing the sermon on social media is a great means to possibly reach countless people who wouldn’t have heard otherwise. People create beautiful art on social networks that is celebrating beautiful passages in Scripture.
I believe that as technology has come to ease various tasks, fast and effectively in education, health, transportation, business etc, it should also be used to further our faith and whether or not it is okay to use cell phones in church depends on the situation and the reason. Different situations warrant different answers.
What do you think? Is technology a distraction or a tool to further the gospel? Drop a comment; let’s know your thoughts on today’s post.
Until next time, keep sharing the love of Christ!
This article aptly captures the advancement of technology and it’s interesting effects on Christianity. However we want to view it, human beings naturally have short attention life span. Thus, it is spiritually wise we take our hard copy Bibles to church instead of the DISTRACTIONS that we call advancement in the name of PHONES. Thoughtful write.
Thanks you for the piece Gbemisola. I also agree that phones could be a HUGE distraction during church services or times of personal prayer. However, one way of managing the inevitable notifications and phone calls is to mute the ringtone, switch off the data and put the phone on flight mode before entering the Church. The world will not end during that period. It works for me.