1. Alienation. Someone shared that they had been excluded from social events because they didn’t have a Facebook account. That’s not very nice. If lack of access to technology excludes people from community, this should raise warning bells. At the very least, there should be more than one way for people to access information – limiting communication about an event to one channel (e.g. Facebook) is exclusive as it assumes that people a) have access to technology (e.g. Facebook), and b) want to use it. We should assume neither.
2. Addiction. This example of a South Korean couple starving their child to death while caring for a virtual child is at the extreme end of the spectrum. But the need to be plugged-in, to know what’s happening, to read updates, to share updates is a modern and unhelpful phenomenon that has the Center for Internet Addiction. If only we felt the same eagerness to read God’s word and pursue our relationship with Him. On a more light-hearted note, wondering if you’re addicted to Twitter? Try this fun quiz. Apparently I’m 45% addicted to Twitter. It’s a fine line between engagement and addiction. Other posts I’d recommend include: ‘Addicted to tweets‘, ‘Excessive internet use linked to depression‘, and ‘Enabled or enslaved by technology?‘.
3. Laziness. Some things are best communicated face-to-face, or at least over the phone. Technology allows us to be lazy and laziness is never good. For example, sending your Bible study leader a text message to let them know that you won’t be coming tonight. That’s lazy – if you are not going to be there, it’s courteous to pick up the phone and apologise and explain. It’s easier to send a text, but for the benefit of your leader who has spent hours preparing and who is responsible for caring for you, it’s not a good option.
4. Potential to sin. I’m not sure if our opportunities to sin have increased with technology, or if we’re simply more aware of them. But take for example Facebook – it can prompt jealousy and envy (I wish I had what she has), pride (posting status updates to promote ourselves), lust (looking at unhelpful photos of people), gossip (sharing news on Facebook, or that we heard on Facebook) about others. The list goes on. Sure, Facebook didn’t invent jealousy, envy, pride, lust and gossip – but it sure makes these sins easy to fall into!
5. Wasting time. Nielsen recently revealed the extent of time spent on Facebook, and how this is increasing. On this site I shared how Australians spend 29% of all time online, on Facebook. I know I seem to be picking on Facebook – I’m not, it just provides lots of good examples! Technology can make us more efficient and productive, but it can also just help us to waste time. And we waste a lot. When the Master returns, I want to be busy doing his business, not procrastinating on Facebook.

What would you add to this list?

(Feature image attribution – it’s a light-hearted image for a more serious topic! http://www.flickr.com/photos/paloetic/ / CC BY-NC 2.0)

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• Surveys, polls and sign-up forms (e.g. Wufoo)
• Organising meetings (e.g. TimeBridge)
• Reputation management (e.g. Google Alerts)
• Website analytics (e.g. Google Analytics)
• Collaboration (e.g. Huddle)
• Password management (e.g. Pastor)
• Email newsletters (e.g. Campaign Monitor)
• Task management (e.g. Remember the Milk)
• Note taking (e.g. Evernote)
• Time tracking (e.g. Freckle)
• Asset management (e.g. Dropbox)

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1. The Twitter Guide Book. A comprehensive guide from Mashable.
2. How President Obama spends his time. If you missed it, this relates to ‘You’re busy, but are you productive?‘
3. 11 ways to use images poorly in slides. Some lessons for churches here?!
4. 100 online tools for non-profits. Which of these does your ministry use?
5. Why use royalty-free music. Good article, following the recent discussion on copyright and churches.

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I’m often busy, but not as often busy doing what’s important.

I came to this conviction after reading C.J. Mahaney’s series on Biblical productivity. C.J. explains:

• Busyness does not mean I am diligent
• Busyness does not mean I am faithful
• Busyness does not mean I am fruitful

Ouch.

And he has a word for the procrastinators amongst us. Here’s an insightful quote by Scottish preacher, Alexander MacLaren:

“No unwelcome tasks become any the less unwelcome by putting them off till tomorrow. It is only when they are behind us and done, that we begin to find that there is a sweetness to be tasted afterwards, and that the remembrance of unwelcome duties unhesitatingly done is welcome and pleasant. Accomplished, they are full of blessing, and there is a smile on their faces as they leave us. Undone, they stand threatening and disturbing our tranquility, and hindering our communion with God. If there be lying before you any bit of work from which you shrink, go straight up to it, and do it at once. The only way to get rid of it is to do it.”

C.J. comes to the conclusion that to be faithful, productive and fruitful for the glory of God, requires him to accomplish three things:

determine my present God-given roles,

determine specific, theologically informed goals, and

transfer these goals into my schedule.

This series challenged me in a number of ways:

• I have been challenged to consider the roles that God has placed me in (Christian, son, fiance, friend, MTS trainee – among others).
• I have been challenged to set goals for these roles (C.J explains that his goals revolve around serving and surprising those with whom he interacts within those roles).
• I’ve been challenged as I’ve realised that I am easily distracted by what is of secondary importance, and challenged to prioritise (i.e. make suitable time for) what is of primary importance. As C.J. puts it, just because I’m busy, doesn’t mean I’m devoted to what’s most important.
• I’ve been challenged that my schedule for each week must reflect the goals that I have prayerfully considered, that are derived from the roles that God has given me.

The series ends with a great reminder – only God gets his to-do list done each day. We need that reminder.

And you, like me, might also benefit from reading this series. It’s an easy 36-page spread – I pray we might not just be busy, but also be faithful, productive and fruitful – honouring God with our time.

Read on…

• Check out the 17-part series blog post series on productivity.
• Download the complete series ‘C.J Mahaney on Biblical Productivity‘.

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