“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.” (1 Timothy 6:10) Love of money, not money itself, is the problem. Today, technology is blamed for all sorts of evil. Why it’s developed and how it’s used, not technology itself, is the problem. As we taught Fortune 500 companies in Big 5 management consulting, technology enables processes and strategies; it doesn’t dictate direction.
Demand drives development and usage determines functionality. Technology should be built and utilized to help carry out the Kingdom’s most critical mandates (GC3 – Great Commandment, Great Commission, and Great Calling). Having worked in the church tech space since the dot-com era and having led Christian tech task forces, I’ve been encouraged to meet many faithful innovators working to fulfill those directives. However, nearly all are underfunded renegades brave enough to build what churches aren’t requesting, with no assurance of adoption. Meet The Need has invested millions developing technology solutions for two issues few churches realize they have – a lack of (internal) discipleship and (external) compassion. Not recognizing those gaps means not allocating much money to address them, so Meet The Need (like many other GC3 tech providers) gives our applications away to churches at no charge.
The Church’s mission should be equipping and deploying disciples, yet contemporary church growth models emphasize attracting and retaining attenders. Larger churches with significant tech budgets have fueled entire industries hotly contested by well-funded software companies eager to meet demand for the following types of tools…
Leading Church Technologies Today
Church Management Software (ChMS)
There are roughly 250 ChMS vendors saturating the market, with new players entering the game every year. Once a church reaches a size where organization, tracking, and communication becomes complicated, ChMS promises to increase retention, house member data, plan worship services, engage churchgoers in activities, arrange church events, register internal volunteers, follow up with visitors, and facilitate giving. While those functions are all necessary, ChMS largely ignores more important priorities for churches – like spiritual growth over congregation growth, outcomes over outputs, discipleship depth over breadth, and community impact over member satisfaction.
That’s because ChMS is designed to accommodate a definition of attendees as “customers”, not the embodiment of Church (“ekklesia”) or Kingdom “employees” tasked with pursuing the biblical “customer” (neighbors, coworkers, and friends who don’t know Jesus). Some pastors may argue that the small group features of ChMS encourage discipleship but that assumes small groups are effective in disciple-making and intended for that purpose. Small group formats foster fellowship, making a church “sticky”, but authentic discipleship is far more personal and intensive (understanding deeply and obeying faithfully).
Giving
Most churches without a ChMS use an online giving application, a market valued at $4.59 billion with an 8% annual growth rate. For-profit fundraising vendors compete relentlessly for business from the 1.9 million non-profits and 400,000 churches in the U.S. The Bible defines generosity in terms of time and talents, not just treasures – but software companies go where the money (and demand) is. Church budgets are practically non-existent for externally-focused compassion, discipleship, or evangelism software, so the size of those markets and number of players pale by comparison. Vendors in those fields do far more business with non-profits (not churches) who are willing to pay for shared case management or other community engagement apps. To try to increase demand, many donor management systems now incorporate volunteering functionality to quickly convert (time and talent) volunteers to (treasure) givers. Even the word “outreach”, historically devoted to community care and share activities, has now been redefined (e.g. by Outreach magazine) to mean church advertising (e.g. mailers, branding). In the rare instance where a church invests in local missions systems, the focus is on seasonal events, not relational ministries that truly transform communities and alleviate poverty. Matthew 6:21 says, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”. It’s also true that where a church’s treasure is, there its heart is also.
Artificial Intelligence
Sermon writing apps and prepackaged messages have grown in popularity, so it’s no surprise the primary AI tools used by pastors are sermon generators and assistants. Ethical questions arise around attributing credit to others (whether humans or AI) for content creation. Stewardship questions arise around a pastor’s biblical responsibility as a teacher to study and preach the Word as instructed by the Holy Spirit. Passing “borrowed” sermons off as their own is disingenuous, and taking shortcuts to enhance perceived performance appeals mainly to “consumers” shopping for a better “experience”.
While AI has the potential to promote the common good, it also threatens to push Christians farther apart rather than bring us closer together. Authentic interactions are being replaced with avatars and text generators. AI can be a powerful research and innovation tool, but inundates centrists with suggested content (after consuming a related article) designed to edge them toward the fringes.
Live Streaming
COVID forced nearly all churches to make services available online and the live streaming industry boomed. Many churches continue to stream because 83% of visitors watch online before showing up in person. However, now isn’t the time to encourage alternatives to face-to-face worship and fellowship. Church attendance has dropped by 40 million, its most significant decline in any quarter century in our nation’s history, and the percentage of U.S. adults identifying as Christian is down 25% since the early 1990s. Among those who still attend, many sit in the back or exit through the revolving church door. Watching online makes church hopping and non-engagement even easier – simply by changing the “channel” without anyone knowing.
Tech Advancements that Could Advance the Kingdom
A sure sign that the priorities of America’s churches were aligned with GC3 would be major players in the Christian tech market racing to build apps to carry out the Great Commission (evangelism and discipleship), Great Commandment (loving the Lord and our neighbors), and Great Calling (finding and fulfilling God’s purposes). In that scenario, churches would be committing most of their tech budgets to decentralizing and distributing (responsibilities), empowering churchgoers for Prayer/Care/Share ministry all week in their neighborhoods and workplaces. Pastor burnout would be diminishing as technology brought efficiencies and members (re)assumed GC3 roles they had long ago abdicated. New apps and modifications to existing systems would recast user types along biblical lines, holding members as accountable as pastors for internal and external engagement in GC3 as the personification (rather than consumers) of church.
- Discipleship – ChMS platforms would help form discipling relationships, track progress down discipleship paths, and add metrics indicating depth. Emerging innovators like Global.church are creating discipleship communities, providing content, fostering spiritual formation, and mobilizing missional action.
- Discovery – Spiritual gifts assessments and strengths apps have been on the market for decades, but churches continue to underutilize member capabilities. Skills that could transform communities are overlooked or deployed for “church chores”, hesitant to challenge “customers” to go beyond their comfort zones.
- Evangelism – Numerous apps help Christians share the Gospel, but evangelism training is uncommon in churches today. Expectations have been lowered to inviting people to church to let “professionals” tell them about Jesus. Meanwhile, online platforms like GMO & Every Student lead millions to Christ.
- Compassion – Transactional acts of service “check the box” but don’t change lives. Event-oriented churches utilize event-driven tools to manage “outreach”, but new technologies like Link2Hope establish sustained relational circles to demonstrate the love of Jesus to families in need of help and hope.
- Unity – While live streaming, social media and AI can divide, technology has the potential to bring us together, as evidenced by the Drop The Stone campaign that used online marketing tools to urge Christians to reject resentment and embrace grace in the months leading up to the divisive 2024 Presidential Election.
Praise the Lord for bold, faithful innovators developing technologies that churches haven’t requested or been willing to pay for – but should. When church priorities and budgets adapt to biblical mandates, more tech vendors will adjust theirs accordingly.
It’s Your Turn…
How else do you think technological advancement could advance the Kingdom?
