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Which new technologies hold the most promise—and the most peril—for use in church ministries? Brad Abare, founder of the Center for Church Communication, Mark Keller, author of God on the Internet, and John Dyer, web development director at Dallas Theological Seminary, suggest the best and worst new tech.

As a web developer born the same year that Sony released the first Walkman, I have lived most of my life in the world of gadgets and hyper-connectivity. I watch every Apple keynote, religiously read the blogs TechCrunch and Engadget, and reflexively reach for my iPhone whenever there is the slightest lull.

Yet when it comes to technology in the church, I believe that the technology that has the most promise in the church is not the latest thing that comes off the assembly line. Rather, it is the technology—any technology—that church leaders openly discuss with other leaders and with their congregations. Conversely, the technology that is most perilous for a church is the one that leaders immediately adopt without thinking through and addressing how it will subtly reshape our spiritual lives.

The reason talking about technology is so important is that I have seen first-hand how technology—for all its promises—often brings with it a myriad of unanticipated trade-offs.

For years my wife and I would spend the final minutes before leaving for church frantically searching for the checkbook. So when our church announced that we could set up automatic draft payments, we jumped at the chance to streamline our life and give more consistently.

After a little while, though, we noticed that our new plan was changing our giving in ways we hadn't expected. Every week, when the person next to me passed the offering plate, I started to wish secretly that I had an "I give online" token so that he or she would know we were faithfully paying customers. A few months later, when our pastor gave a sermon on the joy of giving, I started wondering if we were missing out on the intimacy with God that can come through repetitive acts of devotion. Instead of worshiping through sacrifice, I seemed to be sacrificing the chance to worship for a little convenience.

Of course, automated giving itself is not unchristian, and I don't think the church should stop using it. Instead, we need to move past naively assuming that technology is a neutral tool, and begin acknowledging that new technology will always reshape the environment into which we integrate it.

When I was a youth pastor, I found that using a projector to show Bible passages resulted in fewer students bringing their Bibles to church. If I had to do it again, I wouldn't deem the projector good or bad, but would spend time thinking through the trade-offs with my fellow church leaders, and then talk with my students about how technology shapes the way we encounter Scripture.

We can't stop using technology. But if we put our phones down for a few minutes and talk about it together, we can stop it from using us.

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John Dyer is the web development director at Dallas Theological Seminary and is writing a book on faith and technology. Brad Abare and Mark Keller also suggested the best and worst new tech.

Previous articles on how churches use technology include:

The Art of Cyber Church | Joel Hunter is known by many as part of President Obama's inner circle of pastors. Fewer know him as one of America's most innovative church planters. (September 16, 2009)

From the Printing Press to the iPhone | Shane Hipps urges Christians to discern the technology spirits. (May 6, 2009)

High-Tech Circuit Riders | Satellite churches are discovering a new way to grow the body of Christ. (August 31, 2005)

Forget Televangelists; How About Going to Church to Watch TV? | Megachurches getting so mega they're building moons. (June 13, 2001)

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November 2009, Vol. 53, No. 11