Wired for Ministry
For this pastor, real-time faith and relationships are virtually assured.
Zack Hubert
For both members and attenders, the front door to Mars Hill Church in Seattle is not a big brass handle but rather a Web address. Seeking to advance its ministry online, the growing tech-savvy congregation hired Zack Hubert, an ex-Amazon.com computer programmer, as its fulltime pastor of technology. Recently Hubert used his Mac PowerBook to chronicle one of his not-so-ordinary weeks.
SUNDAY
8:03 a.m. I open up the laptop to check my e-mail, then go to the church elders site, and the members web site. The old version of the site was like one big auditorium full of 2,600 people (our church membership). The only ones willing to talk were a pretty small group of opinionated folks. The new approach is more like a bunch of smaller 500-hundred-person rooms with microphones throughout, meaning more communication from more corners of the church.
10:12 a.m. More and more, people are connecting online for jobs, romance, or other opportunities through social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook. Each person has a web of relationships based on common interests. So we created TheCity, our church site, designed to reach Seattle for Christ.
I see it working like this: A Mars Hill community group leader learns an elderly woman across the street from his house has taken ill, and she doesn't have family in the area to take care of her. Within five minutes, he e-mails an alert to all church members and attenders who live within a mile of her and organizes several work parties. Of course, the real ministry occurs when everyone shows up at her house, when members fall to their knees in prayer, and when the life of the community shows love to the neighborhood. Without TheCity it would take hours to mobilize the same response.
MONDAY
11:35 a.m. Reviewed the members and elders sites to see what's happening in the body. In the prayer forum site, prayed for a grieving family that just lost its mother. Also found someone asking for a good doctor and read about recent movies. The current site definitely hits a wide spectrum.
12:02 p.m. Listening to a podcast from the eastside campus while I work. This gives me the ability to stay up to date on all that's going on, since I can't physically attend all the services at our six campuses
6:00 p.m. End of a four-hour church board meeting. Approved two new elders. Wonderful men that I look forward to serving alongside. Then home to dinner with my wife.
TUESDAY
1:02 p.m. In TheCity, we're building a paperless need-sharing network that connects a person, such as a single mom who can't make rent, with someone who's able to help. You'll be able to get an alert on your Blackberry and within a few clicks pledge to meet that need.
9:35 p.m. Met with a friend who's getting ready to leave for overseas to visit a gal he's interested in. They've only met twice and have grown in their relationship through a free online videophone service called Skype.
WEDNESDAY
1:25 p.m. Just wrote an article for Codex, the technology-in-ministry blog for Mars Hill—"One place to find all our feed content; audio, video, blogs and e-mail newsletters." It's a common entry point where other churches can see what we're doing as a church, and interact with us and one of about 17 different blogs at Mars Hill that involve people in Seattle, around the U.S., and in the United Kingdom, Australia, as well as other countries.
THURSDAY
11:35 a.m. Feeling discouraged after writing our elders about the status of an ongoing problem of our church's computer network that's led to much work stoppage. When it's down, we are effectively down. Sometimes technology can be a big roadblock to getting things done. Technology must be a problem solver, not a problem maker.
FRIDAY
8:13 a.m. Morning routine: While at the gym riding an exercise bike, I read Scripture on my iPhone, then switch over to the audio version for the rest of my workout. If it's good enough for the Amazon business executive to stay up to date on recent management books, then it's a good enough methodology for a busy pastor to stay firmly grounded in the one true Word.
Zack Hubert is Pastor of Technology at Mars Hill Church in Seattle (zack@marshillchurch.org, MarsHillChurch.org).
