A couple of weeks ago, I attended a seminar at the Austin Graduate School of Theology. While I was there, John Weaver, who is the Dean of Libraries and Technology at Abilene Christian University, presented on the subject of Christian Ministry in a Digital World. He discussed spiritual disciplines and how technology can help or hinder our quest to pursue the Lord in our daily life. During his presentations, he offered some tips, helpful apps, and other hints to boost your spiritual life that I thought I might share.
Mcscott.org – a website to help in scripture memorization. It allows you to enter the scripture you want to memorize and the date that you want to memorize it by. Then, it gives you a schedule and cards to print out to help you systematically work to memorize the passage.
Routine Deck App – an organizational app that helps you align your morning where you incorporate Bible reading, prayer, and other spiritual disciplines in your morning routine.
Echo Prayer App – an app that allows you to record and catalog prayer requests. The app will give you notifications to pray for certain requests throughout the day. Plus, you can mark how the prayer has been answered.
The Tech-Wise Family, Andy Crouch – a book that he recommended about how a family should handle the pressures that technology can provide.
Proverbial Screen Savers – Weaver made the perceptive point that we are looking at screens often throughout the day: our computer screen, phone screen, TV screen, etc. Why not take advantage of that by putting screen savers on your device that reflect words of Scripture? Then, every time you pull up your screen, you will be reminded of biblical truth.
Tech Sabbath – Like the disciplines of fasting from food or taking Sabbath from work, we need to incorporate breaks from technology. Weaver suggested the model of 1 hour/1 day/1 week. Have one hour a day that you take a break from technology, one day a week that you take a break, and one week a year that you unplug. This reminds us that technology is not our master.
Cellphone Coop – Weaver encouraged that during Bible studies to offer a place to put your phones so that your full attention can be fixated on Scripture and the discussion. Research still says that when we want to do deep reading, it is best done in a print format rather than a digital one. So for deep Bible study, it is best to put the phones away.
