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One Sunday in 2020, in the sanctuary before the worship service, while the worship leader and the worship team practiced, while the pastor sat in a pew reviewing his sermon…
…the entire stage went dark.
The worship leader, the pastor, all the worship team, and the angels in heaven looked at the resident tech genius. Sitting alone under an emergency light, she and he (this church was fortunate with two resident tech geniuses) worked quickly to diagnose, re-boot, say a few prayers, flip switches, and everything was back on.
There was a pause in heaven for 30 seconds and relief on the faces of the pastor and worship leader. Everyone realized that they had just seen the 2020/2021 version of a miracle!
In years past, the miracles most-oft prayed:
#1 For the multitudes to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior
#2 For the worship team to sound like the Bethel worship team
#3 For occasional healings
#4 For offerings to go above budget
Now there is only one prayer request for those who plan, prepare, organize, and work on the weekend service.
#1 For the tech to work
On Sunday morning, in sanctuaries across our land, the stage lights will not flutter, the displays won’t go dark, and the online service will actually go online and stay online for the entire online service.
The miracle workers are not the pastors or youth pastors. The tech geniuses are the church’s new-found apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers (Ephesians 4:11-14). Their value has risen faster than the price of Bitcoin!
In years past, they were perhaps an after-thought or seldom thought of at all. In the church of 2021, they are rock stars.
Members, coming out of hibernation, do not ask in 2021 when entering the sanctuary, “Who is preaching?” or “Who is leading worship?” or “What is the topic of the sermon?” They think, “Are the tech geniuses here today?”
Nothing else matters and certainly, nothing else works without their ministry!
I have witnessed pastors who are smooth with public preaching, parsing Greek verbs with ease, suddenly look like nincompoops in the presence of technology. Pastors who refuse to re-boot and update their nomenclature of tech, or at least understand the difference between Adobe and Prezi, now seem archaic.
Like the saddle-born circuit-riding preachers of the 1800s.
In 2021, to whom do the high and prolific content providers turn when in need of audience participation and better outreach analytics? Pastors and church leaders first pray and then text the tech geniuses.
This state-of-affairs was all predicted when the Apostle Paul wrote:
We finally recognize the truth that those formally considered the least are now the most necessary. And those we used to ignore and walk past; we now give abundant honor. 1 Corinthians 12:22-23 OGV
Amen!