MMRC: Technology: what's appropriate to the field?

Technology: what's appropriate to the field?
by Justin D. Long

Christian radio/TV stations	2,160 (1990)
Christian-owned computers	54 million (1990), 206 million (1996)
Christian computer users	200 million
Christian computer professionals	50 million

Someone commented in a wonderful mini-essay to us that technology was simply a "big word that means: tools."

"I can go down to my local hardware store and become enamored with the whizbang all-in-one ultimate jim-dandy saw/drill/lathe/joiner/welder/cooker/fisher smoker... put it on my VISA card... take it home. But if I haven't already learned a little about wood working, if I am not a welder, cooker or fisher smoker, then the thing will eventually wind up catching dust in the corner of my garage."

Many of us are still in the "gee-whiz" stage of technology. We are in danger of becoming enamored with it, instead of using it and becoming enamored with the Task remaining before us. Computers are proliferating everywhere, and we've seen many responses to it: technophobia (fear of technology, preaching against it, viewing it as the source of all mankind's ills); technoinfatuation (infatuation with technology & then finding a ministry application for it); technoidolatry (devoting all our time to technology--television, radio, computers--for entertainment value, making of it an idol); technopride (getting the biggest and the best for the sake of having it when no one else does); or simply technowaste (getting technology without a proper evaluation of how it will affect our lives and be of use, and then letting it sit in waste in the corner).

Technology isn't needed to preach the Gospel. It will improve the speed with which we deal with an explosively growing world, but it isn't an absolute requirement. We need to carefully examine why we want a piece of technology and ask ourselves several questions, the first being: "How will this improve the job I'm doing?"

Suggestions

If you need a technology so you can do something you're not currently involved in, you're probably introducing it out of fascination with the technology, not the ministry. (If you're not already making converts and discipling them, how will you use the Internet to do it?) "Appropriate" means we have to evaluate situation where we are using technology and make certain that we are using it wisely and correctly. We ought not to introduce technology for its own sake (the "gee-whiz" effect), but rather for the sake of the people we are seeking to reach with the Gospel.
Don't introduce technology the receiving "field" isn't able to sustain. (For example, Western Africa is a no-maintenance culture: technology has to be either low-maintenance or maintenance-free).
Only introduce technology that is infinitely reproduceable. (We aren't supposed to be always around). Local methods and materials will have to reproduce technology when we're gone. (One missionary refuses to use an overhead projector--because it's not locally reproduceable, so local pastors can't use it.)
Don't introduce technology which unduly raises people's expectation about money. If we waste money, people (especially in the Third World) think we have money to waste--and perhaps some of it will come to them.
Don't avoid using technology where it will be useful. The world is becoming more and more saturated with technology. Small towns in India share television sets in community rooms. Radios are common. Small villages in China have satellite dishes, and these dishes are also common - even though illegal - in many areas of the Middle East. Technology does dampen the personal relationship, but it is also useful for large-scale evangelism. Both personal and mass evangelism have their place in the spectrum of evangelistic methods.