Why Mormons Rock at Online Ministry

A couple years back I attended SXSWi in Austin, TX. This is the conference where tech and internet startup’s try to make a name for themselves. Geek nirvana really. In preparing to go, I checked out all the attendees to see which one’s had religious affiliates. I was pumped to meet people like myself, who do technology ministry. I looked through the entire directory and came away disappointed. There were ZERO mainline churches represented (though I did my best to represent United Methodism). However, in my search I noticed that The Church of Later Day Saints, The Mormons, had TEN representatives!!!

They had learned a lesson that I had also learned. If churches want to engage in technology, you have to stay on the cutting edge. I recently stopped attending Church Communications conferences for the same reason. At best, they are about three years behind the times. You don’t have to be rocket scientist to imagine how a new App can be used for ministry, but you do have to know what new Apps are in the pipeline.

There are two great examples of how Mormon’s do excellent online ministry. The first is that they have online missionaries!!! The second is their excellent Free alternative to Ancestry.com, “FamilySearch.org” I’m sure that the Family Search has the dual purpose of helping people to identify any Mormon ancestry, but you get enough value in return to make it worthwhile. Plus, they get to make use of their massive genealogy database.

So LDS church, I tip my hat to you. If only the rest of us had your foresight.

 

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