No Signal, Por Favor

Cell phones have become a problem for many churches. I have a friend who puts the number of the local Pizza Hut up on the big screen before service with the words, “If your cell phone rings during the service, you have to buy pizza for everyone in attendance today.”

Some churches in Mexico are using state of the art technology developed by electronic warfare experts to silence cell phones that often ring during worship services. Four churches in the northern Mexico city of Monterrey are using equipment developed by defense and military experts to jam mobile phone systems. The signal jamming equipment is packed into two wall-mounted boxes the size of small speakers. One is located beside the altar, the other at the entrance. When switched on before a service, the system causes a “no signal” message to be displayed on the phones.

Bulmaro Carranza, caretaker at one of the churches, says before the system was in place, it was uncomfortable hearing calls coming in during services. He says, “Now it’s 95 percent quiet.” He adds, “We believe that we were the first church in Mexico to use this technology. Now we’re getting calls from all over the country to see how it can be installed.”

¿Puede usted ahora oírme?

—Jim Sandell in freshministry.org, with info from Reuters (9/22/2004)

Leadership Online Poll
How does your church handle ringing cell phones, pagers, and other noise-making devices in worship services?

It’s not a problem in our services: 48%
Bulletin/video request to turn off electronic devices: 28%
Wait for phone to ring, turn, stare, induce shame: 13%
Verbal “turn it off” announcement at start of service: 8%
We have a signal-blocking device that prevents ringing: 0%

—LeadershipJournal.net (Week of 11/8/04)

Trendex

*Porn grows exponentially. Number of Internet porn sites in 1998: 71,831 In 2001: 311,652 In 2003: 1.3 million

—from N2H2 Internet filtering company, in IT Figures (www.pe.ag.org)

*Is homosexuality OK? Faith affects percentage who say “yes.” Weekly church attenders: 31% Few times/monthly attenders: 57% Infrequent or never attenders: 70%

—ABC News poll reported 10/22/04

*Effect of tithing? Go figure. Total funds needed worldwide for unmet basic human needs—food, clean water, shelter, immunizations: $80 Billion Total if all U.S. church members increased giving to 10% of their income: $86 Billion

—emptytomb.org

*We’re moving less. Census data shows more people are staying put, which may be good news for churches. The percentage who moved to a different residence has declined steadily over the past decade. In 1990-1991: 17% In 2000-2001: 14.2% —American Demographics