In Part 1 of my Tech and Christianity series, I talked about how important tech would be to a Christian’s ministry. Today, I will talk about what resources there are for the pastor and the lay Christian.
First up, there are a myriad of articles on how to walk the Christian life. From Apologetics to devotionals, and even a series of webpages on how to deal with hard issues the Christian/Biblical way, there is no reason for a Christian to fall away from the faith if he is online. Not even the threat of pron could hurt a Christian’s walk, if he loves his God unequivocally. The resources are so many, I even stumbled upon an exposition on the book of Revelation (Chapter 12) that finally seems accurate and highly objective.
If you are a Christian and you want to be inspired by the Word of God as revealed by prophetic worship, ElijahStreams is one radio station that was an answer to my prayers when I was younger. (I had prayed that I would be able to listen to all-Christian radio when I was in college and a younger Christian needing a lot of encouragement; and today, because of the Internets, now I can!)
If you are a rural area pastor or a missionary, you may be working in a field that takes a lot of time offline. Sermons would be churned out a little quicker, freeing you up for more person-to-person ministry time, if you used a Bible software. If you have heard of the classic and well-loved, not to mention comprehensive, and best yet, FREE, E-Sword, then why aren’t you downloading it yet?!
If only I had a PC, I would use this. But as I am on a Mac and E-Sword is a Windows executable file, I can’t use it on my Mac. But there is great news for Christians on OS X! Here is the definitive (read: FREE, adequate, and cool!) Bible Software/Application for you:
There are other Bible software that are more comprehensive: the Accordance Bible, the ILumina Bible, among others.
A word of warning: These Bibles aren’t for free, as these are actually meant for serious Bible scholars and… Those who can afford them.
So why bother? I am all for Open Source! The MacSword is based on the Sword project, which is an Open-Source effort to put the Bible in the hands of Windows, Linux, and even Mac users. With an Open Source code that would delight even the hard core Linux-using Christians, I believe this resource was well worth these individuals’ efforts.
So if you are a Christian and you think that you’re living a loner’s life online, don’t believe it for a second! My church hangs out on Multiply. In fact, you might enjoy the musings of the Senior Pastor of EveryNation Ministries (worldwide)!
I guess this means we’re invading the Internets!
And if you want more mobility, there is even the GoBible to help you keep a Bible at the tip of your fingers.. Literally. Well, at least on your cellphone.
Well, if you are of the Christian school of thought that tech is evil, I guess this post would dispel some of those notions. 🙂 At least, I hope it would. 🙂