Students Using Technology for the Lord

My wife and I are blessed to have a fine young man staying with us a couple of weeks this summer. He is a college student from Alabama who is in Connecticut helping us create a massive database that we will use to prioritize areas that need new church plants. Part of this process included downloading nearly 200 demographic reports on every community in the state. Eric was sitting in a chair in the office with his phone in hand. I thought he was texting. Then my printer started spitting out reports. One after another, the reports just kept printing. He had figured out how to use my wireless network to print directly from his phone. Not only did I not know that was possible, but I would have never even thought to ASK anyone if it was possible. But to a college student, it made perfect sense.

This is another reminder to all of us that the next generation expects to use technology not only in their daily lives, but in their Christian service. Churches that want to reach the next generation are going to have to learn how to use technology as part of their ministry efforts. Fortunately, if we do not know how to use technology for ministry, we can find a student and let them do it for us. I suspect we would be surprised just how many technological things students would do for us if we would just let them. Not only CAN they do it, but the WANT to do it. It is time to make them true partners in our ministry and let them use their technological skills for the Lord.