Technology and the Next Hymnal
Sing to the Lord a New Song:
Technology and the Next Hymnal
Technology opens doors in the church and in the world. One tweet on Twitter can connect pastors in ways unimaginable when my Dad was in seminary (sorry, Pops). Blog communities bring new and exciting — though imperfect — ways to discuss Christ and culture. What self-respecting youth group these days doesn’t have a Facebook group? That said, I’m also aware of the growing digital divide in our congregations. Now, when we think of our diversity, we must also remember the diversity of those with email and those without, those with a high-speed internet connection and those without a computer. Ahh, the challenges of ministry in 2009.
The Presbyterian Hymnal Committee, a group formed last year, is in the initial stages of developing the next Presbyterian hymnal. The next hymnal will include songs composed since 1990 (the publication date of the blue hymnal) and will seek to honor our rich heritage. Perhaps it will bring back some from the red book, but it’ll also put into print some of the new places that God is leading us. For all your next hymnal questions check out http://presbyterianhymnal.org , and remember the committee is just beginning its work.
Especially in these early stages, though, I want to take to the committee some ways that new technology might best be used to sing a new song unto the Lord. Copyright law is tricky enough with printed materials, let alone when concerned with electronic formats, but I want to think broadly at this stage.
(On a parenthetical note, let’s not forget the amazing “technology” of the bound paper printed book. What a remarkable, durable, cheap, easy-to-use, technology it is — and will be for years to come. The next hymnal will certainly be in book format, but why stop there?)
The committee can make no promises — we have budget considerations like everybody else — but we will consider, in good faith, how God may be calling the church to use technology in its congregational song and worship planning. That’s where you come in.
Comment away. What tech ideas — hymnal/singing/worship related — would be handy in your congregation? How do you use the hymnal for worship planning and how could that be bettered with new technology? Do you use existing online worship resources? What, technologically speaking, should the hymnal committee consider?
Pop a comment on this post, or email me at adamjcopeland at gmail dot com. Peace.
Wireless Hot Spot for Buddhist Monks
Talk about a technology vacation. Not only am I visiting Megan’s family in rural North Dakota where dial-up internet is alive and well and a free wireless hotspot is unheard of, but I forgot my cell phone! Not that anybody really calls me these days anyways, but texting is handy.
So being the responsible, thoughtful, adult person I am, at the airport upon realizing my cell phone was still on my bedside table, I promptly hyper-ventilated and sprinted directly to the airport chapel (when else are those things used) for some quick hail marys and pay phone calls to the overnight delivery service. When I came to, however, I decided to use the experience as a way to train my patience and quell my addiction to technology. No twitter for me in North Dakota, no facebook refreshes, not even a cell phone. Look at me, boy can I sacrifice. I’m practically becoming a monk.
In college, I studied abroad on St. Olaf’s Global Semester program during which I traveled around the world, taking local courses in five countries along the way. When we were in Hong Kong, we toured a famous enormous statue of Buddha (I’m sure it has more significance than that). But what I took away from the Buddha trip wasn’t a religious experience or a history lesson, but a cultural picture embedded in my minds eye forever.
At the top of that enormous statue–the tallest outside of India, if my memory serves me–two Buddhist monks were playing. In their early twenties, these monks sported the shaved head and yellow robes required of their vows, but there, on the top of the steps of the Buddha tucked away between several mountains the monks stood, each holding, in his right hand, a cell phone.
I’ll try to make the best of my time away from my phone, but I won’t feel too bad if I don’t make it permanent. Some sacrifices aren’t for everyone.
image by Tosaporn Boonyarangkul
Would Jesus Twitter?
I’ve been in several conversations and meetings lately about technology, social-networking, blogs, and, well, PR. No, “PR” is probably not the best descriptor because these folks are interested not just in public perception, but in how they can best use existing technologies to connect people and ideas for the betterment of all — if that’s what PR is, my apologies. I love to think and talk about such things, but I’m also aware that my English and Religion degrees only go so far in equipping me for the conversation. Here’s what I’ve been thinking, though.
My generation is connected to each other in ways unseen twenty years ago. For example, Megan and I had coffee with some good friends a few weeks ago. It was a great hour and a half, and I look forward to getting together again soon. But I probably won’t see them for a few more weeks. Yesterday, though, I saw they uploaded pictures of a new dog and asked for name suggestions via a facebook status. I added my two cents and by doing so, checked in with them and shared in their fun news. Somehow, via a facebook interaction or two, our friendship is strengthened, or at least positively continued, through a few clicks on facebook. I could give plenty of other examples, or even list friends who I feel fairly close to and been conversing with for over a year, but who I met through the blog and have never met in person. After spending a year abroad and now returning to Decatur with some friends having moved away, I’m particularly aware of how technology has enhanced friendships in ways unavailable before.
Networks such as facebook, and facts like youth these days are spending more time online and less time watching TV, are changing our culture pretty darn quickly. Remember when PalmPilots were all the rage and tablet laptops were the next big thing? Remember when our children just hung out at friends’ houses rather than setting up “playdates?”
So I wonder how the church needs to change in such a world, and I wonder how Christians can best live into the web 2.0 world and beyond.
Sure there’s plenty of cautious questions to ask: are online encounters cutting down on in-person ones? How do we follow an incarnate savior in a virtual world? Are the tech gaps between generations alienating our most seasoned members? And many more.
I just signed up for Twitter (@ajc123) as I’m definitely of the “don’t knock it until you’ve tried it school of technology.” Day one is going fine after I figured out how to reply to people (they should put the shortcuts in the welcome email).
In seminary I’ll often hear stuff like, God’s great movements always begin on the margins of society or, be suspicious wherever there is empire for the resounding message of the Bible is against empire and for God’s subversive acts. So I wonder, is new technology the margins, the periphery, or just empire?
If it’s the margins, should we be starting up new church developments in Second Life? If it’s empire, should we even email?
I’m not sure, but I do know that the resistance I hear to much technological change sounds an awful lot like the resistance I hear to good and right changes in the church: but we’ve never done it that way before. The resistance sounds an awful lot like fear of change rather than excitement for new possibilities for living-out the gospel.
I’m not sure if I’ll like Twitter. I’m not sure how long I’ll blog. But I’ll end with a story I heard last week. A friend of mine was at a church service in Atlanta where she met a visitor. After welcoming the visitor, she asked how she heard about the congregation. The visitor said she was surfing the web angry about crappy old hymns and not wanting to have anything to do with the church. She googled and found my blog where she found the presbymergent.org link. She followed that and ended up visiting an emergent congregation in Atlanta.
I have no idea who this visitor was. Never met her. Probably never will. It goes to show, though, that Holy Spirit has no qualms about moving online. Maybe we shouldn’t either.
Online Advent Calendars
Apologies for a few days’ break there, something about final exams threw a cog in the blog. My ethics exam is mostly done, though, and I’m practically on break. So, here’s a few online Advent calendar’s for your browsing-counting-down-preparing pleasure.
First, a simple website with ethical ideas to help make Advent a time of service is found here.
Second, Trinity Wall Street has perhaps the fanciest Advent calendar around here.
Third, a non-Christian but fascinating celebration of creative media is found here.
Shoot me a link to others and I’ll start a wee collection.
Update: Fancy, Katie, here’s another: Following the Star.
Super-quick new MacBook Review
After saving and waiting for months, I purchased a new uni-body aluminum MacBook on Friday. No surprise here: I love it. I moved up from a three-year old iBook G4 which was great, but you could tell it was three years old.
Here’s my quick two cents:
Big pros:
- I love the screen. I was skeptical and wasn’t sure of the lack of ridge, but it’s so bright and shiny it’s impossible not to fall in love with it. If I go back to something on my iBook I have to practically get a magnifying glass.
- It’s fast as, well, something really fast. Love that. At one point during my transfer of files I had 4,000 pics in iPhoto and it was smooth and silk.
- The design is gorgeous. I feel like I have a piece of highly functional art more than I have a computer.
- I hadn’t really thought about the fact that I’d be upgrading to Leopard operating system with the purchase but, wow, it’s great too. No enormous changes–and some are so logical that you barely notice–but it’s really great to work with. I really do like Spaces, and the new iWork is spiffy, and Stacks is cool too. And little things like having sticky notes that minimize so folks sitting beside you can’t read them is nice as well.
- the mouse/track pad. It’s the perfect size and I don’t miss the button at all. Once I get really used to it, I think it’ll save big time. I don’t have any errant clicks, but I do have lots of easier use of it due to its size and not having to find the button (oh, the big change is that they took away the button and now the whole track pad is the button/can be pushed down.) I really like the fact that you can click with two fingers and it functions as a right click.
- the sound quality from the speakers is really pretty amazing.
- I really like the efforts Apple is making to go green. All the recyclables and lack of bad chemicals in the new MacBook makes me feel all gushy inside.
A few cons:
- I wish the electrical cord thingy was a new design. It was great a few years ago, but making it smaller and a different color would be nice.
- due to the secrecy of the roll out, it’s hard to find a case that fits it snugly. I’m now on the look out since the only 13’ incase one is a bit loose.
- the black keys get a little smudgy — when you look at them at an angle you can see finger oils.
- some people miss the firewire cord. I’ve never used one, so that’s no big deal to me. But I’ll put that out there.
- I’ll add more later, but that’s all that comes to mind at the moment.
- UPDATE: The up and down arrow keys are tiny and too close together. This throws me of when maneuvering.
Moto F3 Review, Summary: no matter what, do NOT buy it
If you’re thinking of buying the Moto F3 cell phone, stop. Burry those thoughts in the farthest reaches of your mind and never ever visit them again.
The phone is crap. Utter ridiculous excuse for technology. Don’t get it. Don’t use it. If you see one, run away as fast as you can.
I’m sorry, Motorola, I have nothing against you. I’ve never met you. You might be perfectly nice in person. But you designed a product that made my life barely worth living. And for that, I will never forgive you.
The phone drops calls. The phone does not tell you when you have a voicemail. It turns off in your pocket. It sends text messages slowly, and receives them whenever it gets around to it, which may be days later. The screen reminds me of the first computer, that one made in Greece, 3000 years ago. You cannot text lowercase or uppercase letter, nor can you receive them. To read a simple text message, you have to scroll a few million times because the screen only holds 5 characters at a time.
Sure, at under $50 retail it’s cheap. Maybe so, but how much are you willing to pay for your sanity.
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