The title of this post was actually a headline on a Reuters News article.
Apparently, St. John's Rectory Church has decided to install a Wi-Fi 'hotspot', so parishoners can send an email or surf the internet while in church.
The intention is to make the church a 'sanctuary for everyone'. Apparently, people are so used to constant electronic access that they can't be expected to be comfortable without it.
It's a sad commentary that church seems so peripheral that it only gains in value if you can multi-task. It really challenges me to consider how far we can and should go to reach out to those outside the church. At what point are we becoming like them, under the guise of drawing them in?
But it did give me some ideas. Why not capitalize on the concept of instant, wireless communication, and advertise the church as a prayer hotspot? Instant access to God. No monthly fee. No hardware required. Never down for maintenance. Installation is simple, and can be done by the following voice commands:
"Lord Jesus, I'm sorry for my sins..."
6 comments:
Is this for real??? I am all for trying to keep church in the now but this is wayyyyy outta line!!! How do they justifye this????
Ann, I like your observation that no hardware is required. This means the Windows and Mac users alike can confess their sins, although Windows users, in general, probably have more sins to confess.
Ray, you could look at it the other way around. If Windows users are already in purgatory, maybe they have fewer sins left to confess.
I thought only Linux users believed in purgatory.
Some churches and countless other places I have visited, have already installed wi-fi hotspots for people to connect to in a 50 meter radius without realizing it. With the advent of easy to set up wireless networks without any default out of the box security settings, there are a few unsecured wireless networks out there.
There should be an 11th commandment that says: "Thou shalt at least secure thy wireless network with WEP".
But maybe perhaps it is in God's plan for the church to attract and evangelize wardrivers.
Well, I've visited churches that have hotspots in a cafe, for example, but this is the first time I've heard of a church actually encouraging people to email and surf in the sanctuary during the sermon!
As far as security goes, there is an unfortunate pattern whereby Christians tend to naively think that it shows faith in God to nobly eschew security.
Personally, I won't do business at websites that expect me to enter personal information without an SSL connection, and Christian web commerce is no exception.
Post a Comment