Tag: Digital

The demise of the modern family

Yes, that blog title was a bit extreme I will admit. Maybe it was too much, but it points to a real issue that is causing bigger problems than we’re actually acknowledging. Marriages and families are having less than ideal experiences and one cause of many are the little screens we cary with us everywhere.

Twenty years ago, it was the TV. I remember seeing pro-family campaigns that talked about how TV is destroying the American family and I’m sure this sentiment hasn’t changed, but if they only knew how little of an impact TV has on society compared to the effect mobile technology is having on society. It’s time for families to have real conversations about how always on connectivity and media is impacting the home.

I’ll confess, I struggle with mobile and technological addictive behaviors. My default mode is to look at a screen as opposed to just sit and think, rest and enjoy a moment. I’m far more productive with technology than I ever was without it, but I realize that this does come with a cost. I’m not really calling for throwing the baby out with the bathwater, but I do feel that conversations need to be had.

This past March, I got a little dose of reality.

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Video displays in lobby space

Environments matter. Anyone who tells you otherwise… probably has a crappy environment. Ha! I couldn’t resist.

I’m actually doing what I can to improve our current environments. Last year we were hoping to do a 1-1.5 million dollar remodel, but things didn’t play out the way we wanted to. I had a little extra money I didn’t use on some staff positions, so I’m doing some work on our environments because they are in need of attention. Our building is 8 years old and it’s starting to look a little tired. I’ll write more about some of the things we’ve done later, but I had to throw a question out to the audience. I’m in need of some help from those who have some experience in this area.

I had a good friend come visit last may and I asked him for an honest evaluation. Standing in the middle of my ministry lobby he spread his arms around indicating his surroundings and said, “You live in a high tech digital city, yet you’re doing ministry in an analog building.” Wow, so true. So many at our church work at Dell, Apple, Google and about every other tech start-up you can imagine. It seems that if that is a part of our audience, a somewhat digital environment would appeal to this part of our community.

So, I’m 5-6 months out from this project, but I’m trying to do the research now.

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