Technology and the Church

I am amazed once again at how much technology is being used in the Kingdom of God. This past week beginning on Tuesday morning all the way through today I had the privilege of attending the 2010 Radicalis Conference from Saddleback Church via the internet at my house and my office at church. This was a fantastic conference with attenders from literally all over the world coming together to be built up as radical followers of Jesus Christ. There were main morning sessions and then individual learning experiences in the afternoon. Those consisted of tracks in preaching, youth ministry, children's ministry, worship, etc. There was even a special track done by Rick Warren's wife, Kay, for pastor's wives.

For the live webcast only the main morning sessions were broadcast. These sessions were incredible with some amazing speakers; Rick Warren, Perry Noble, Andy Stanley, Dino Rizzo, Mark Driscoll, Ed Stetzer, and Kerry Shook. Along with the speakers were some amazing times of worship through song led by Phil Wickham, Kari Jobe, Steve Fee, Starfield, and Rick Muchow. The main session topics we're Radical Devotion, Radical Preaching, Radical Membership, Radical Discipleship, Radical Compassion, Radical Mission, Radical Purity, and Radical Generosity. As Rick Warren began this conference he came back to the meaning of the word radical and where the basis for the whole conference is. Radicalis is Latin and comes from the root Radical which means rooted. I would call this the theme verse for the whole entire Radicalis Conference:

Just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to live in obedience to Him. Let your roots grow down into Him and draw up nourishment from Him. Colossians 2.6-7 (NLT)

A fantastic basis for a wonderful conference. The sessions were full of great material and wonderful worship, but probably the most awesome aspect of the whole conference was hearing Mark Driscoll speak on the crucifixion. Fitting for the conference as probably the most radical showing of compassion. From there he and Rick went into a time of communion with all the attenders of the conference and they even invited us watching online to participate as well. Knowing that people from all over the world were partaking in communion at the same time worshiping the Lord in that way along with Steve Fee leading us in song was an awesome experience.

A great big thank you to Rick Warren and the team there at Saddleback Church for a great conference and for allowing us that couldn't make it to still be a part of it. Technology is alive and well in the church and it's fantastic to see it being put to use for furthering the Kingdom of God.