John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” This weekend I’ll be speaking at a FaithTech conference (https://favs.faithtech.com/) and this morning I felt led to John 1:1. After some prayer and research, I came to realize that the gospel and technology are inextricably intertwined. We’ve all experienced the acceleration of technology, and the effects it has on our lives. Most of this acceleration derives from the fact that our ability to store, process, and transfer information doubles every 18 months or so. We all hear about how AI will change the world, and experience how the internet has already done so. But few of us think about how before this, television, radio and the printing press were also revolutionary advancements in information processing. In fact, the invention of writing and of language itself were just as revolutionary. John 1:1 reminds us that Jesus is the Word, a form of information. Intuitively we know that the gospel message (God loves you so much that he sent his son to die for you) must be transferred, processed, and stored in people’s minds and hearts before we can see transformation in their lives (the word becomes flesh). Many of the most effective churches leverage technology to get the gospel message out today. While pastors vilified radio and television as “the devil’s stronghold”, Billy Graham knew that he had to use every available channel to introduce the world to Jesus. And though we don’t think of writing as technology, only 2% of Jews could read and write during Jesus’ time. Writing then was more of a niche skill than computer programming is today. That means that Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were the software developers of their era. This doesn’t mean we need to be techies to get the gospel out there. Billy Graham wasn’t a techie. But I do feel that God might be calling the church to take a more embracing view of technology to get more people closer to Jesus. Lord I love you. I want to use whatever tools you provide to experience and enable others in experiencing extreme intimacy with you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.