 Okay. Welcome back everyone to the second lecture today on the C314 media and technology in ministry. Let me go ahead, share the here. All right. So we closed off the last hour, previous lecture by just saying that we need to be open to new methods, the contemporary methods in media and technology in ministry. We shouldn't, you know, by default, we shouldn't look at it as evil, but look at it as a tool that we could use the minister consword to people. But, and so while doing that, what is our motivation? How do we draw about it? And what are some guidelines that we should keep in mind is what we want to do in this lecture and then we will pause. Let's go to 1st Corinthians chapter nine versus 19 to 22 1st Corinthians nine 19 22. Thank you. Somebody can read that for us please 1st Corinthians nine 19 to 22 please. 1st Corinthians chapter nine was 19 to 22. For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all that I might gain the more and unto the Jews I became a Jew that I might gain the Jews to them that are under the law as under the law that I might gain that that are under the law to them that are without law as without law being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ that I might gain them that are without law and to the week I became as I as weak that I might gain the week I made all things to all men that I might by all means save. So the Apostle Paul is sharing with us some of his motivation and his approach in reaching all people you know verse 19 he says though I am free from all men I make myself a servant to all that I might win the more so he says look I don't have to be responsible for all people but though I am free yet I make myself as a servant that means I a servant is in coming under obligation to somebody right this is I don't owe anything to all of these people but I make myself as a debtor as somebody who's obligated to them and what is my obligation it is to bring the gospel to them so that I can get them to faith in Christ that I can win them so that's the first thing is he sees that he is obligated to people although actually is free you see he doesn't owe anything in but but he feels that I owe them the gospel okay second we see that in order to reach different groups of people he makes himself relevant to them right to the Jew I became like a Jew right to those who are living by the law I also go as a person who's living by that to those who are living outside of the law I make myself as somebody who's outside the law but I'm under law to God as I'm not you know becoming a sinful person but I go as okay I come to you as you are you know so and he says I to the weak I become like weak I mean people you know they may not have much they may be poor they may be underprivileged whatever I go into their world I step into their world I come in a way that they can relate to and he says I do this so that I says I become all things to all men that I might by all means save some that means I'm stepping into people's world I'm coming to them in a way they are and I'm doing this for one reason so that I can win them to Jesus right now how do we take that and apply it to what you're saying when it comes to contemporary methods making use of media making use of technology you know how do we do that here are some thoughts one is we must speak to people in ways that they understand we relevant right so we mentioned in the previous lecture you know different generations they are engaging in different ways how they are learning where they are learning it's different and so we need to you know be relevant speak to them in ways that they can understand communicate to them in ways they can understand but of course without violating godly standards right and so and media technology helps us do that it helps us speak to people in ways they understand it helps us reach people go where people are and like we also mentioned earlier it helps us reach many more people in less time it's actually a big advantage for us to be able to use media and technology it also helps us be more responsive you know we can respond very quickly to people's needs you know and we see that happen you know nowadays if people have a need all they need to do is send a WhatsApp message so we send you know just send a message you can imagine in days when we didn't have mobile phones people will have to go and make a phone call or when we didn't have phones people have to somehow go to the somehow reach the pastor go to the pastor's house or church office whatever today it's so simple they just send an email they said you know send a message on WhatsApp or something in almost you know instantaneous and we can respond also very quickly they get the help when they need it as quickly as possible or they get the information they need as soon as possible we can be responsible and we can also be respectful meaning we can give people an opportunity to explore the Christian faith in ways that they prefer you know that without putting them in an awkward situation and I'm just thinking of the online services you know and I've met people who are people from other faiths and you know recently I met this young lady in central she said for two years she was watching she's from another faith but for two years she was watching our services online she's from a different city and she's the only person in her family who believes in Jesus she was quietly you know following our services online now because of college she's got a chance to come to Bangalore to study and because of that she's coming to church and she's serving in church right I was just thinking that that's just one example then there's another two brothers again from a different faith family they actually don't take turns to come to church you know once one brother comes the other brother is at home and but they watch online and they're following so I was looking at you know yeah the situation is a little difficult but because of technology they're able to connect they're able to be a part of the services so many like this I'm sure that we have so many so many testimonies where people are exploring the Christian faith without necessarily you know in a way that they can feel safe be safe and still explore the Christian faith elderly people example they're not able to come to church hey it's okay at least at home they're able to connect to the services or watch the service at the time and that's convenient to them so many so many thanks you know so it's it's giving people that opportunity which otherwise they may not have had so so if we if we if we can do this be relevant go where people are helps us be more responsive being respectful we can actually leverage these media and technologies contemporary methods in ministry and we get into you know how contemporary methods in each area of preaching and venue and on as we progress we get into the details but the third lesson I just want to highlight is this we need some guidelines right that means some safeguards that while we are using media and technology what guidelines should we keep for ourselves so that we don't end up doing wrong things right so and I'm just you know I just put this out based on some parts and experience here first of course is we want to be relevant that means speak the language of the people you know so you can look at it in terms of language you can look at in terms of culture and so on be relevant to the people whom you are serving right so if we are an example we are serving young people understand you know how what ways can they connect with the message to the word of god and bring it in a way that's relevant to them you know what what are they involved in you know okay so well we want to you know create videos for them okay create videos that would engage them you know create videos that address challenges that they are facing right uh don't just simply create videos create videos that are relevant to your audience um I think so that's one guideline understand the audience address issues address challenges that are relevant and put it in a way and in a format uh that could engage them yeah so we have to keep things up but while we're doing that there is no compromise in the message our message is god's words right so while the audience influences the methods we use the audience cannot dictate the truth we deliver right the truth we deliver comes from the word of god the method we use the manner in which it is communicated yeah the audience the audience will the audience determines the method yeah because if you're speaking to a certain audience speak to them in their language speak to them in their in a way that they will understand in a way that addresses their issues and their concerns and so on but the truth that we deliver comes from the word of god that doesn't change at all and should not change the danger is then we change the message then that's a problem right so don't change the message the truth is always that it remains it as it is and uh paul mentions you know first Corinthians 1 18 to 25 we look at that passage paul says you know whether there are jews or greeks we preach christ crucified we have only one message it's about Jesus what he did for us on the cross and whether they are jews or greeks they have different expectations that jews are looking for a sign the greeks are looking for wisdom but we preach christ crucified and in that message god will address their needs that that message is the wisdom of god it's the power of god so there's no compromise in our message and we have to stay on it and then we will address this when we talk about sermons and worship and so on we look at some of the areas where the church has made mistakes and how to avoid that a third important thing guideline is we must be pure in our motivation our motivation must simply be glorify god and serve people well serve to enrich equipment and power people and so the tendency is sometimes when we're using media and technology what are the wrong motivations sometimes the wrong made motivation can be oh i want to you know become famous meaning i want to have you know so many hundred thousand subscribers or i want to have so many hundred thousand followers you know the motivation can become that that is a danger to become an influencer you know a social media superstar whatever that's the wrong motivation or sometimes the motivation can be competition meaning i want to be the i want to do better than other church i want my my my media and my social whatever that i'm doing i wanted to be just better than everybody else the motivation becomes it's more of competition right so these are the danger the wrong kind of motivations uh that could come into play when we're using media technology which we should avoid sometimes the motivation can be okay let me see how many people gave me thumbs up you know how many people liked my sermon uh i mean you know and we'll we'll we'll discuss that as well when we talk about social media and so on how to really look at those metrics and numbers but that again becomes a wrong motivation you know uh so while we are using media technology keep the motivation for a lot we want to do this to glorify you and we want to serve people well you know so okay let's do the best we can let's serve them the best best we can let's bring it as good quality as we can not because we want out to bed or somebody else everybody competing with somebody else not because we you know are trying to become rich and famous and all that no no no we're doing it because we want to serve the people better we want to be able to impart into their life you want to be able to communicate and give to them so let's do it well that should be the motivation so we need to stay in that pure motivation uh and not get caught up in some of the wrong areas another important part or another important guideline then we want to mention is sort of we need to be blameless in our conduct that means how we use these tools and how we present and how what we present it should be blameless it should not bring a bad name to the Lord Jesus it should not bring a reproach to the name of Jesus it shouldn't bring a reproach to the church so that's why we have to be careful and we also you know have to be sensitive to who we administering to and so on you know so uh blameless in how we go about doing these things and I also share as we go along simple things you know I remember you know and and and of course we made we've made mistakes and we learned from them for example um you know uh there was a time when uh there and then we had a graphic steam okay they were developed along with the publication steam and so on and uh for our I think one of our very earliest books uh foundations uh I told them I said you know I'll just design a cover that is showing foundations being laid like you know stones being laid uh and that that kind of captures the the idea of the book foundations and I left it at that then the book got printed it came and then on the book cover of a graphic design person who was working with us at that time he had taken an image and I think sometimes you might or you might have seen it which has some pebbles one on top of each other like one big pebble one small pebble another smaller pebble and so a small pebble arranged like that so what did I tell him I gave him the idea saying hey just you know uh a picture that shows foundation being laid stones among another it's a good picture for the cover put that in you know so I'd left it I didn't check usually I would check but I didn't I thought it was simple enough but he went and got another picture a graphic that shows stones being laid on top of each other and it didn't strike me I saw the book printed it was only printed covers already done everything is what you know speed thousand copies all to be in printed then suddenly somebody comes somebody I don't remember who exactly somebody come hey do you know what that image actually means I said I don't know I'm this pebble that's actually some form of Eastern religion but they use those stones on top of each other oh is it and I check oh yeah so that's you know some sort of a I don't know it's something that they use in some Eastern religion they put these stones on top of each other oh and we had printed that on our cover so I'm just saying an example this is just an honest mistake but it was a simple thing you know just an image being used for a book cover very simple thing but it had meaning and the meaning was something totally different you know so then I had to bring it back to the attention of our gravity and say this is what it means it was it was a learning for all of us and then they you know they came up with another cover to actually bricks being laid that's what I meant I meant bricks being laid somebody building a foundation not these so this is an honest mistake but I like that there's been so many so many things you know over the years we've made mistakes we've learned I still remember once again this graphic sting for some event I don't know what it was but this person had used an image of a person's hand and in the graphic this person had a tattoo it was actually a tattoo of a cross but it was a tattoo and you know it had gone we had done it whatever event it was and the promotion had happened that means the image was you know it had gone out and I get a call for somebody or message and I say hey is apc promoting tattoos I'm like you say then they send me a copy of the image look you have you know you've used this image this person has a tattoo on the hand and so they're not looking at the events they're looking at what image we used and the fact that in this graphic there was a hand and the hand had a tattoo on it and I was like oh oh had you didn't call the you know the the media team explain to them I see this is I know it's an honest mistake like we're not even thinking about this but it's going out into the public people are seeing it and they are taking this kind of a message from there that as well church is promoting tattoos and for us that's not a you know it's not something even you know involve ourselves and that's a way to immediately correct the graphic to some Photoshop remove the tattoo and you know send out the message at the graphic and so I'm just giving some small examples where we have to think you know in in in how we are using these tools even I'm just giving simple example of graphics but in so many ways we think you know what is the message that is getting out to the public now we can't just say hey I'm just using the tool and I'm just creating a video and so on what is the message getting out to the public in us using these tools is it you know is it sending a wrong message is it communicating an incorrect message is it bringing a bad name to the Lord Jesus is it bringing a bad name to the church so we need to be very careful very blameless in in our conduct and we don't want to offend anybody you know sometimes I've even got feedback on our sermon title I think I think there was one sermon or just I just I think I preach just an inspirational sermon our God is great and we have the talk our God is great our God is stronger which we sing but I just put that sermon title and I and then there was a comment that you know maybe some a set of another faith put it does it mean your God is greater than my God is you know so of course they're coming from a place where they don't understand what they're saying but that made me think right that when we are putting our message out in public that the sermon title should not turn people away but we want to draw them in so that at least they come in and they explore the Christian faith now the title was very simple our God was greater but how did this person from a different faith perceive that sermon title you know it was like hey you're telling me straight in my face my God is of no use right so why should I even listen to your message so then they it puts them in a very defensive position they want to listen to the message they want to defend their position and so it made me think you know even in selecting sermon titles we want to draw people into at least hear the message and then decide you know and so on it doesn't mean we shouldn't speak the truth we speak it to of course our God is greater but being sensitive to whom we are speaking to you know and how we speak to them becomes very very important so just different different things that we've observed and experienced the goal is to be careful be sensitive to audience be blameless in how we use these tools of media and technology and the last thought that I wanted to share with us here we're talking about some guidelines is our goal is to seek lasting fruit that means our goal is not hype our goal is not emotionalism our goal is not excitement you know so sometimes you know we can use media and technology to make things so flashy so exciting you know people get wow and sometimes we tend to be using the tools we exaggerate intentionally or unintentionally and that means we tend to give an impression of something much bigger than what is actually there you know and then that that that first of all it means that we are doing something wrong because we are miscommunicating and secondly it only excites people but the big question we have to ask is is the lasting fruit you know have people's lives been really changed so our goal is not excitement definitely our goal is not to exaggerate to create something bigger than what it really is our goal is are people's lives really changed you know so we have to be careful that when they're using media and technology and they're communicating because somebody is somewhere far away they're watching the content they don't know what the reality is on the ground they could end up getting a very wrong very different impression of what of what the actual thing is depending on how we communicate you know so and this happens so much in video videography and so on you know you know maybe there are 50 people in the hall but the way you position your camera you can make it look like there are 5 000 people you know you give an impression oh and so we gotta be careful don't do that you know just just make it plain and simple this is what it is let let what they see is what they get you know what they see is they should see the actual reality are without you know us exaggerating misrepresenting and without unnecessarily creating hype and excitement our goal is to bring about genuine change in the lives of people real fruits you know fruit that will remain and so we have to be very careful otherwise the tendency always is on media technology you can make something look 10 times bigger and 10 times more exciting than what it actually is and it leaves a wrong impression and so on so example there was a time when at APC for worship for a long time you know we never used lights and LED panels nothing it was just plain and simple and then slowly we started using lights at one point our team said let's also use smoke machines you can imagine now I wasn't thought it I didn't want it you know I didn't actually think it was useful but they just wanted to try it they tried it for a few Sundays and then the response for people was why are you doing that now what are you trying to achieve by you know using smoke machine on our Sunday service what kind of what are we trying to create you know so that was a simple question and that is like you have more the easy answer we don't need it so we got rid of it okay we're going to use color lights use very simple nothing there's going to be distracting nothing that's going to create unnecessary hype and excitement simple lights just to you know make things look nice that's it you know so these are all choices we had to make as we went along and the underlying question is whatever we do is it going to help us bring lasting fruits is it just cause helping us create excitement okay we don't need that is it just causing us to you know exaggerate look bigger than what we are we don't need that is it helping us to really touch lives helping us to be more effective in serving people okay that's a good thing we'll go with that so these simple questions that we ask of and making various decisions will help us right so just to recap and then close here some guidelines that we need to always keep in mind one be relevant speak to the use the tools use media in a way that will help us reach our particular audience second and we use media and we use our tools we don't want to compromise on the message the message is still the word of God you're going to preach and teach the word of God stay true to that third the motivation why i'm using this must be pure right i want to glorify God i want to serve people better that's it nothing else i'm not competing with anybody else i'm not here for name and fame no glorify God do it well bring some benefit to the people equip them and power them enrich them do some good to the people in their journey of faith okay fourth be blameless and then use it in a way that it will not bring a bad name to the lord or to his church so be very careful be very careful because media technology once you're using it once you put it out there you don't know how many people are watching it so many people see it they they can you know they can get affected they it's impacting them so we have to make sure that we are blameless do it right do it well and finally fifth point is the goal is not to create hype not to create excitement not to exaggerate the goal is lasting fruit right our people's lives being changed yes we want to create something that's engaging we want to create something that's that's captivating we want to use all our creative talent we want to use all our technical skill all of it is good but what are we trying to achieve we want to create lasting fruit not just an excitement not just a hype you know somebody's life has to be changed somebody has to be strengthened in their faith somebody has to be encouraged that is lasting fruit so if we keep these guidelines I think it'll help us make the right choices the right decisions and it'll help us use media and technology in a in a very positive way for the glory of God and preserving people okay so let me pause here let's open up for time for questions discussions any any any thoughts you have any questions you have and from next week we'll start getting into you know various aspects of media technology that we need to cover feel free to ask any questions any discussions anyone first of one small question this is regarding using laptop or any other media for children's church I'll say for example laptop or tab or something for children's church so there is one aspect that you know the screen time of children and should we promote that or should we how do we handle this like can we use laptop or a tab in a small group of children's church or yeah so I think so the answer to that is I think it's simple in the sense that see children's church you know maybe maximum is for a duration of two hours in an entire week and there we you know if we use a laptop or you know have kids watch a video or a short short video or something of that nature on you know on a screen it's it's it's actually very small time you know we may I don't know I'm just guessing you know maximum you spend half an hour 40 minutes not you know more than that so if you look at it in terms of the whole week that's only a small part which I think is is perfectly fine there's nothing wrong with it the real issue is when they go home what do the parents do because there's obviously spending more time at home seven days a week and that's where screen time becomes an issue meaning if parents are using the phone or the laptop or the computer or whatever screen device and letting the children just consume that for hours and hours and hours that is a problem it in church it's basically maximum they're there for two hours out of which you know we may show a video or something for maybe 30 or 30 minutes or less so it's overall it's not a big thing but so so in a nutshell that's not a problem but at the same time as a community we can think of you know other skills that we also want to develop for the children we want them to develop social skills you want to develop you know their ability to think about the scriptures their ability to worship their ability to to discuss the scripture with other children and so this showing a video maybe only a small part we may show a video and say okay then discuss about the video you know what do you think about it or what was nice about it what did you learn from it so we are also spending time doing the other things of interaction prayer worship fellowship in addition to maybe watching a video so we had been doing something very wholesome videos on a small part of it and so it is not a I don't see it as a problem yes thank you nice any any other questions any other talks okay all right so today is just our introduction giving us an overall direction of where we're going to go there's a lot of ground we're going to cover some parts of this might be a little technical but I'll just share those technical details more as a point of information and learning for us I will also share a lot of what we are doing here at APC in terms of the software technology platforms we're using the directions we are looking at going and in the coming years and I hope you know you can take a lot of this and use it in your own churches and ministries okay let's close for today somebody can close and pray and then we will dismiss please anyone can pray and dismiss us father we thank you for this morning that you have given us to learn together thank you for this this course that you have given we pray your god that we would continue to learn well and to adapt this in our ministry in our personal life and we pray your god that let your kingdom be established in every area of our life god may your name alone be glorified in and through us we give you praise in Jesus name we pray amen amen thank you so much thank you everyone hope we are taking attendance hope we are taking our attendance yes yes it's um automatically recorded by google so google class from uh oh it's okay everyone yes so thank you so much thank you all right god bless enjoying your day