I can still picture the iconic image of the editor of the tech section of the SMH walking down the median strip of a city street speaking into a cellular phone the size of a 1.25 litre bottle of soft drink. It was the early 90's and, until then, 'mobile' phone technology weighed around ten kilograms, and resulted in physio bills larger than the phone bills.
Suddenly the cellular phone revolution hit the world in earnest. Whilst this new technology was priced to ensure that only early-adopters and stock brokers could afford it, it was only a few years until the mobile phone was in the reach of mums and dads.
Suddenly a new, advanced form of technology was in the palms of the public. A revolution was underway.
Over time, even university students could afford a mobile. Then, school kids hid them in their bags. Even grannies adopted the technology. The phones got smaller, and with digital technology, and its successor '3G' we were able to move much more data much faster. We were on the eve of mass video phone technology. Soon, like real-life Trekkies, we would beam our images anywhere around the world. The potential was enormous.
Yet, video phone technology soon went the way of the Rubik's Cube. This enlarged 3G data pipeline was relegated to allegedly clearer phone calls and internet browsing and downloading.
But, in what must have been one of the greatest surprises to technical observers and predictors, the greatest impact upon our society of the cellular phone has probably been the so-called 'short message service'. SMS's have taken over the world.
Ironically, with the remarkable advances in technology, our primary and preferred means of communication is less verbose than the telegram or the telex of the 19th and 20th centuries.
One of the key messages we need to hear from this is that the death of the written word is greatly exaggerated. Given a choice, people will often prefer a short written word rather than a long spoken conversation.
Additionally, people are keen for immediacy, rather than verbosity. We are happy to have a rough word right away rather than a polished message later.
Ministry lessons from SMS revolution
What does this teach us in our modern ministry?
Firstly, people are comfortable deriving information from words. We want facts and we want them fast. We shouldn't fear quoting a 'text' from the scriptures to unchurched audiences.
Secondly, fresh is best. Immediacy rules. We need to communicate with freshness and currency. We need to be in touch with our world as well as with the scriptures so that we can speak with a prophetic voice in our modern world.
