When the Reverend Pete Phillips first arrived in Durham, United Kingdom nine years ago, he was “kicked out” of the city’s cathedral. He had been reading the Bible on his mobile phone in the pews. Phones were not allowed in the holy place, and the individual who accosted him would not believe that he was using his phone for worship and asked him to leave. “I was a bit miffed about that,” says Phillips, who is director of the Codec Research Centre for Digital Theology at Durham University in the UK. “But that was 2008.” Next year Durham Cathedral will have been standing for 1,000 years. But its phone policy is now UP TO DATE. “They allow people to take photos, to use phones for DEVOTIONAL REASONS – whatever they want to do,” says Phillips. “The attitude has changed because to restrict people from mobile phone use now is to ask them to cut their arm off.” Paul says, “to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become ALL THINGS TO ALL MEN, that I MIGHT BY ALL MEANS SAVE SOME. Now this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I may be partaker of it with you.” (1 Corin. 9:22-23)
Paul is informing us that we need to use ANY MEANS POSSIBLE to present the gospel. He says, “…I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is THE POWER OF GOD to salvation for everyone who believes…” (Rom. 1:16) For the past six weeks or so we have been having “cell phone church” and it has worked very well in my opinion! We have watched the pastor in his home, standing in a field or alongside a river, excitingly preaching the Word of God. Many people scrolling through their phones in Christian churches are probably looking at a Bible app called YouVersion, which has been installed more than 260 million times worldwide since its launch in 2008. According to the company behind YouVersion, people have spent more than 235 billion minutes using the app and have highlighted 636 million Bible verses. But reading the Bible in this way could be changing people’s overall sense of studying the bible. What we must do is, “put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and BE RENEWED IN THE SPIRIT OF YOUR MIND, and that you PUT ON THE NEW MAN which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.” (Eph. 4:22-24)
Your Personal Pastor -Bill Stockham