Bobby Gruenewald Is The Cat’s Pajamas
I love this dude for statements like this…
I would never use Google if it required me to leave my house and travel to an unfamiliar building on Sunday only once a week…listen to 30 minutes of unrecognizable music, followed by a person talking for 30-40 minutes, and still possibly have to try to find a person who looked “official” just to find “results” for my search. That would be absurd! But, that is a substantially abbreviated version of what so many churches put people through who are searching.
This is a statement from a longer post which he makes the statement, What the Church should learn from Google.
I think this is one thing that my church excels in although I’m always looking for ways to improve that stream.
What do you guys think?
What can the church learn from Google?
Los
[Head over to swerve to offer your perspective there as well]
[ht:bedeviant]
RAIN IT DOWN
That the church gives the opportunity to excel, it does not demand it’s own structure.
Here’s the tools, now go for it…
thanks to the work of the Holy Spirit, the church, with all her faults, has a pretty long track record of producing results.
the Bible doesn’t say, “I will build my Google and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.”
Someone searching shouldn’t have to look hard to be able to get answers.
i think you love all of this a little too much…
dude.
google provides you great stuff by simply asking. I think the way that “the church” can do this is by educating christians about how to talk in intelligent ways.
“churches” although you probably mean “congregations” aren’t necessarily supposed to be easily accessible. I mean, we set up our own buildings, so obviously, we’re acting like you have to “join us” to be a part.
so….
congregations can’t be like google, they are probably more like a concert or a gathering or a party.
the church, however, can be more accessible and user-friendly.
That the “front door” may not actually BE the front door into our organizations.
Google’s search engine created side doors that can lead directly into an organization’s web site; often bypassing the homepage entirely.
Churches have “touchpoints” that are side doors as well…maybe someone’s first experience is through a small group, watching a friend get baptized or a volunteer opportunity.
I wonder how often we’re thinking about those experiences with the same intentionality as the weekend services?
Bobby’s analogy is good.
I agree that North Point Ministries is doing an excellent job at filtering the desired results up to the top, but I still feel as though we have many barriers.
I can only speak for my old, pre-Chrisitan self and the 2 other non-Christians that I know personally that attend NP and BC, but I can’t help but notice commonalities in how we three evaluate the sunday experience at NPM campuses.
peace|dewde
http://dewde.com
perhaps my following question is the result of watching and listening to so much ambiguous chatter in the current debates for our next prez – so forgive the snappy vibe – but HOW DOES THIS TRANSLATE? what are we talking about when we say that finding answers to God is hard in the church?
help me understand?
The Christian life isn’t supposed to be as easy as Google.
I get what you’re saying here.
Our church — Healing Place Church (www.healingplacechurch.org) — does a pretty good job, too, but we are always looking for new, creative ways to take the Church outside the walls. We strive to take the Church to the people and to make it relevant to them on a day-to-day basis. We have some pretty awesome ministries that do this, but even more, it is an attitude of the HEART that makes up the very fabric of our church.
I LOVE that about HPC!
I think we could be considered a “Googlish” church. =)
Of course (just as with Google), there’s always room for improvement.
I think I like the concept of this post. I believe that we do make things too difficult sometimes in the church. Newcomers may come in and not know our “system”, or may think it weird (as do I most of the time) that we take a part of our morning service to shake hands and say hi to someone you don’t even know … but anyway, I get that sometimes we make it hard for outsiders who are coming in.
On the flip side, I did a little experiment with Google … if it is so easy, and we need to model the Church after google, then shouldn’t I be able to easily find the answers to my questions there? I went to Google and typed in several different things: who is God, who is Jesus, what is the meaning of life, why do bad things happen to me . . . and some of the results were scary. More and more information to wade through with differing opinions, and no real clarity … this is not the type of Church I want. Sure Google looks all nice and neat on the homepage, but when you get into it, all you’re really doing is having to sort through a bunch of crap anyway.
I understand that google makes it easy to find answers to searches, but then you have to wade through all of the mess to find the real one.
Make Church easier: Yes.
Should it look like google: not so sure.
How does the church make it’s “interface” simpler?
http://www.exchangedlife.wordpress.com
I agree with “Texas in Africa.”
The Christian life is not supposed to be as easy as Google. It’s not, like, “hey, I wanna know about God, let me press this button and download everything there is to know.”
Sorry. Doesn’t work that way.
Texas and Kristel…
Great responses if the title of his post was…
What Can Christianity Learn From Google.
Unfortunately that is not the point of his post.
Good thoughts though.
I completely agree with you.
i’m loving this blog
core sin
i would say i oscillate between pride and pride
hmmmm
yeah that’s it
but then again
maybe it’s pride
Actually, to ask what the church can learn from Google is a stupid question. The church is neither a service or tool for the good of humanity. The church is the vehicle for worshiping God, caring for and loving it’s membership, and organizing for the purpose of sharing God’s message with those who don’t know it. Individual’s ultimately shoulder this responsibility. Christ’s words and example are sufficient to carry out that purpose. How absurd to insinuate that the church should try to learn something from the world…or a database even! Keep your eyes on Christ, He is the standard, the measuring stick, the goal if you will.
Los,
The church is the visible expression of Christianity, so Texas and Kristel’s point still stands. And Eric’s point is brilliant.
If you meant to say, “What can the institutional church learn from Google,” then I do see what you mean. In Eric’s vein, we can learn from Google’s weakness, not its strength—that once people are ‘in the door’ we should be focused enough that they don’t have to wade through four feet of crap to get to the truth, if they find it at all.
Functionally speaking, what Google does is make it elegantly simple for the average person to get sidetracked by misinformation.
I find this thinking a little fascinating. I tend to always look at ‘the Church’ from the outside from a de-churched point of view. I continually see how we make it difficult to navigate our processes and programs just so that they can get an answer to a question or for someone to pray for their need.
Yes, the church is supposed to be a ‘vehicle for worshiping God, caring for and loving it’s membership, and organizing for the purpose of sharing God’s message’ as AmazonMan stated but that is only for the churched. What is supposed to be for the un-churched, de-churched and anti-churced?
Our front door should be open and inviting for everyone. I feel that we can accomplish this by looking at ourselves with a self improving eye.