Think your parish doesn’t need an app? Think again

The digital world is changing — and fast:

For a while now, tech pundits have talked about mobile as the future of computing.  Many non-tech-pundits have responded with skepticism.  Sure, there are a lot of people with iPhones.  But the best web browsing experience is with a desktop computer, right?  And besides, why should we spend so much time developing a mobile-friendly website when maintaining our desktop-friendly one already takes more time away from “real ministry” than it should?

Well, a recent Business Insider conference sought to put an end to those questions.  We aren’t just heading into a computing world dominated by mobile devices – it’s already here…

…The number of smartphones being sold has already exceeded the number of PC’s being sold.   That means there are more people with a smartphone than with a computer.  Plus, in 2-3 years the number of tablet sales should exceed PC sales. … And that’s just the beginning.

In just a few years, the number of smartphone sales is set to explode.  This is so much so that Ken Dulaney recently said “Maslow’s needs hierarchy ought to be changed to breathing, food, water and phones”.  (see cached post here)  That’s quite a statement – but considering that in 2010 the United Nations revealed India has more cell phones than toilets, it may not be far off the mark.

So the question is, how does your church address this growing phenomenon?  Do you look at web-technology as a “ministry”?  If not, perhaps you should.  Len Sweet’s recent book, Viral, reveals how the Googler generation (digital natives, or those born AG-After Google!) is poised to revitalize the Church.

Whether you call it evangelism, ministry, or something else entirely, a big part of doing Church is communications.  Communications is becoming more and more important in the secular world, and there’s no reason why the Church should not be a leader in this arena.

This is why we need to rethink website ministries.  The old model was “it doesn’t matter how good your technical staff is – just get a website up.  Something is better than nothing.”  Unfortunately, that doesn’t hold much water with digital natives.  Churches that are growing know that you need a culture of excellence.  We are doing God’s work and our efforts should show that.  Nothing could be further from the truth than with website ministries.

If we are to reach a new generation of people and bring them into the story of God, we must constantly be working to improve our story-telling techniques – and that means knowing what the trends say about how people communicate and will communicate in the future.  If mobile is the future (err, make that the present) – then our ministries should reflect that.

There’s more, including links and graphs here.