Windows^® Religion

We live in a Windows^® world and that may include religion too. We college professors live with it in the classroom ¹ and pastors might increasingly live with it in the local church. I’m not talking about the ease with which church members can “multi task” by checking facts in your sermon on their 4G connection. I’m thinking more about how people approach religion in general today. It seems like people increasingly take a Windows^® approach to religion.

The wonderful thing about Windows^® is the user can keep several things going at once allowing him or her to jump from one thing to another quickly. We can keep several apps open on the screen “window shopping” for what captures our attention most. And all the time we can keep the rest of our windows in background. I wonder…is it possible that during the last twenty years or so people have come to treat their religion this way too? When people come to church do they mentally “open a window” giving the preacher a chance… but they keep several other windows open in background while they are “listening” to the sermon? Has Windows® become an approach to life, including our religion?

So, what would church be like if people actually treated their religion like one window among many? Well, they’d keep other concerns running in background during church. During the sermon they might even switch windows in their mind while keeping the preacher an “open window” in the background. People like this would seldom lay all else aside to completely focus on God. Preachers in this world would wonder why their people seemed so “glazed over.” If where there were Windows^® religion preachers would find themselves needing to compete for attention. They try to “attract traffic” to the religion window. They’d be increasingly concerned to measure “site visits.” They’d develop equivalent terms for “time-on-page” or “counting clicks.” I suppose the gold standard in a Windows^® world would be getting people to make your church their “home page.” And you’d most worry about being “minimized” or them “Xing out of the window.”

OK, all this is mostly for fun. But seriously, now. Have you seen any shifts in your audience in the last 10-20 years. Not to blame Windows^® or the Internet. But has your audience changed? Do your people “multi-task” more mentally nowadays in your church? As a college professor I see the magnified impact on my students. 100% of the students I teach have never known a world without Windows^®. But has this affected older people too?

So that’s what I’m thinking about this week. What do you think? For whatever reasons, what changes have you seen in your audience the last decade or so?

So, what do you think?

The discussion of this column is on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/profile.php?id=161502633


Keith Drury February 29, 2011
www.TuesdayColumn.com

^1. The idea for this Tuesday Column was sparked by a conversation last week with Professor Joe Dongell of Asbury Seminary where Joe remarked that students today increasingly see their live professor as “only one window open on their screen” and not their exclusive window. Indeed, for many students there are actually multiple windows open on their laptops in class—Facebook, email, YouTube and one or two other windows and a college professor must increasingly “compete” with these other windows for time and attention.