Expect More Ads for Churches and Denominations on Face Book


Word has it a mega church has inked an agreement with Face Book to advertise its message, collect funds and split them with FB. We will see many more of these church advertisements of FB, I am guessing. And, why not. It's a money win win.

It is interesting to observe how fast parts of Christianity adapt to some things but are unable for others. I remember when I was a farm boy listening to my uncle talk in our church. He was visiting back in the Midwest while a missionary in Alaska. He praised our church, also his own, because it did not have syncopation in its music. Decades later I watched Pat Robertson say sinful church music had a "strong base beat." These two were run over not long after by electric guitars, driving rhythm and screens. Now the concert style church with mostly music and short sermons is the deal.

The irony is that many churches who encounter God in this rock setting are unable to be contemporary about women's and gay rights. New technology for talking to God is good, hearing God reply with any modern ideas is bad.

We all hear many things will not return to what they were before the pandemic. What will happen to churches? I've read pundits who speculate that between 10%-20% of former church goers will not return. And, I've read more people will want to get out of their house and churches will benefit. 

It seems to me the concept of a website, Face Book and You Tube church services will inevitably make churches more on-line groups than communities of people meeting in person. If on line fund raising is more successful than passing the collection plate we can expect more resources devoted to on line. That's the way everything else works, why would it not be true of churches? 

One inevitability of electronic church is sensitivity to contemporary ideas and values. We just saw Rick Warren who has several mega churches in California ordain female pastors. This even though his churches are affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention which considers this a travesty. If Warren gets all the money he needs from his network of websites and churches and the SBC dumps him he will be indifferent.

My prediction is we will see the theology of conservative Christianity start to catch up with its use of modern technology.

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