Jennica
How do pastors use technology to write sermons and preach?
I have an IT assignment I am working on. I picked a dream job, (pastor) and now must find out how technology relates to that. And, to be honest, I don't think that they need technology. They do to find verses faster and to make a website to help people find the location of the church and contact them. I need more though. Please help!! Thanks! :) #technology #pastor #church
4 answers
Jaleel Mackey
Jaleel’s Answer
Hi Jennica!
This is a great question, and I'm glad you asked it. I would like to share with you an example of a pastor who uses technology to scale his church. His name is Pastor Steven Furtick from Elevation Church. Here's a link to the churches website:
http://elevationchurch.org/pastor-steven/
Pastor Furtick and his team have created a technologically vibrant church with many features to help spread the sermons. One of these features is a mobile application (you can download it on your smart phone if you'd like - it's called Elevation Church) which houses podcasts of every sermon, videos of every sermon, workshops, series, etc.
This should be a good starting point for you to complete your IT assignment and to start building the career plan to achieve your goal!
If you have any more questions, shoot a comment back and I'd be happy to help in whatever way I can. Have a great day!
Best,
Jaleel
Hi Jennica,
[I think I wrote too much so I’ll break up my reply into a couple of posts if this will let me:]
I’ve been a preaching pastor for a little over 20 years, so here’s my experience. My other pastor friends and I use computers to prepare sermons in two basic ways: the writing portion (which is probably similar to what other people do when writing a talk...) and the Scripture study...
There are different types of pastors and different traditions, but my particular tradition expects pastors to be mini-resident theologians with fluent (reading) skills in Greek and Hebrew. When I began seminary and began preaching I would sit at a table with my Greek New Testament and three lexicons, and looked up words that seemed like “key” words as I went...
Leo
[Part 2] Then if there was a word I needed to dig into further I would go to the library and look up the word in Kittel’s 10 volume “Theological Dictionary of the New Testament.” And if it really seemed like there was something heavy riding on a proper understanding of that word I’d do a quick word-study by looking up all the instances of the word in a Greek Concordance, read through the entries and quickly classify the different usages of the word (using Kittel as a guide). Often times a theological treasure hunt like this would end with nothing more than if I just read the English in proper context... But every now and then it would open a door to a deeper understanding of what the Bible was saying (how it would have been understood by its original readers).
Leo
[Part 3] If I was quick I could do all this in an hour or so. When I felt I had a good grasp of the passage and its nuances, I’d check a couple (2 is good for me) commentaries on the passage, just quickly, to see if there was anything more I needed to know... That could take the rest of an afternoon. Bible software changed all of this for the...quicker. I’ve mainly used Logos and Hermeneutica, but I’ve dabbled with the free E-Sword and the Mac version called “Eloquent” (Bible software).
Leo
[Part 4] Basically I can pull up a passage in the original Greek or Hebrew, and if I hover the mouse over a word I can see the Tense Voice Mood parsing at the bottom of the window. And if I don’t know a word I can double click and get the entry in multiple Lexicons... including an abridged version of the 10 volume Kittel. If I want to do a word study I can search the original word quicker than I could flip to the proper page in a Concordance. And then I can cut and paste any info I want to keep track of. What used to take me an hour now takes me ten or fifteen minutes.
Leo
Leo K, thanks so much! I am thinking about becoming a pastor one day. This was a big help. I am a devoted christian and am a very good speaker. If you have any tips to do with being a pastor, please let me know. I am always happy to learn more. Thanks again!
-Jennica
Jennica
Hi Jennica, maybe three words of simple advice is: 1) do the hard work. Whether it's learning a language or writing many drafts of a talk, being a good worker means doing the hard stuff. 2) be true to the way God made you, your culture, age, outlook - God made you "you" for a reason, so don't fall into the temptation of remaking yourself into the image of a successful pastor. 3) Love Jesus. And if you're a competitive person then be competitive about this...loving Jesus more than anyone you know. And if you meet someone who loves Jesus more, then you go learn from them how they do that :)
Leo
Jonas L. Harris
Jonas L.’s Answer
Awesome question! When I was a youth pastor, I would incorporate all types of social media during the week to connect with students. Announcements would go on the Facebook page, as well as invites to events. During Friday Night Youth Group, students would text questions about the message during Q&A. Mark Driscoll, former pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle changed the game when he produced 3D animation movies to introduce a sermon series and developed a tech team to weed through text and post them live on a screen during service. He would also answer the questions on the spot. Being able to speak the language of millennials is important.
Simeon Snow
Simeon’s Answer
Church websites also have to be more sophisticated than just finding and contacting the church. Most churches, especially the larger ones, use their church website, as well as their church apps, to triage visitors to the ministries and groups they will find more useful. Since a church has people from diverse backgrounds, you will need a site that can give information on childcare, elderly bible studies, adoption opportunities, etc. My previous church set up a site that helps recommend which Bible study groups would be the best fit amongst a hundred or so options. Some churches also set up their service sections of the website to help administer a skills assessment to plug them into the section of the church that could best take advantage of their giftings. These church websites often also have an internal section where members can communicate to each other, ask for prayer/help, post private pictures from trips and service opportunities, and find handouts and aids for the current lesson series of the church.
Lakara Pope
