People have been gathering for worship for thousands of years and have developed all kinds of spoken and unspoken norms for behavior in church. It's only been a few years that everyone has had a cellphone with them wherever they go, and even more recent that most people have a smartphone in worship. Here are some suggested guidelines for how these and other devices should be used in church.
First, please silence your cellphone so that it will not ring during prayers, silence, sermons, etc. Jazzy ringtones are especially distracting for fellow worshippers trying to focus on a sense of the holy.
That said, please be gracious when your neighbor forgets to silence a phone. Most of us have failed in this regard. To my shame, my phone rang once while I was serving communion. Perhaps we should be grateful to our neighbor whose phone goes off during worship if we are reminded to silence our own phones and therefore avoid embarrassment.
Second, it's probably a bad idea to browse email, Facebook, and Twitter during worship. We live in a time in which our attention is terribly dispersed. A little focus during an hour set aside for God might be very helpful to all of us.
Third, an electronic Bible is just as much a Bible as a leather bound gilded Bible is Bible. There is nothing wrong with using a version of a Bible on a phone or iPad in church. These days, many preachers use iPads and even cell phones to read scripture when they preach. Electronic Bibles give the opportunity to make notes, compare versions, define words, and use lots of other resources. Once upon a time, religious texts were considered so holy that they could only be read from scrolls. Christianity grew quickly in part because early Christians used the more portable codex (bound books like the ones we use today) which allowed missionaries to easily take the scriptures all over the world. We would be foolish to fail to follow their example and use whatever resources we have available to make the Bible accessible.
Fourth, there is no reason we ought not use electronic devices to connect our worship to the larger world. Two very easy ways to do this include checking in on Facebook when we go to church, and tweeting sermon quotes or other reflections while we are in church. I suggest Millbrook First UMC folks who use Twitter use the hashtag #mfumc whenever you tweet about the church.
We live in an exciting time when we have a very special opportunity to give witness to our faith and get the message of the Gospel to far more people than would ever actually go to worship in a church building. We can evangelize and expand the scope of our congregations' ministries significantly with very little effort. Who knows that something as simple as a check-in or a tweet might open the door for a conversation that would lead someone to come to faith in Christ?
love it!
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