3 Thoughts on Cell Phones in Church

Couple Cell Phone Statistics before we being:

• Average number of texts sent by an American Teen each month: 3,339 Texts (566% increase in two years)
• 42% of teens say they can text message blindfolded
• Texting is the number 2 use of cellphones (Checking the time is #1)
• (2014) Americans spent about $42.8 million on mobile devices
• (2015), should be close to $1.8 BILLION.

*Information provided by: www.onlineitdegree.com

Consider 1 of the 3 "solutions"
      1. Tell everyone to turn them off as soon as they sit down.
      2. Accept everyone and allow them to do what they want. Let people be responsible.
      3. Jump into the hipster/techie movement and make cell phones part of the service.

There is no best answer, but I side with 3.

Use them to your advantage.

      One of the coolest churches I've been to put their notes on a free bible app. I download them every time. You can even comment which is amazing because then you can interact with other church attendees! And hey, that creates really cool conversations and interactions. Another church encourages members to take pictures of/in the service and post them online hoping this can be a non-threatening way of inviting friends.

People really take notes on them: I know, its crazy.
      During any given service, I'm jumping between my 'notes' app and my 'bible' app as well as looking up things I didn't quite understand. This is much easier than trying to have a desk of books and journals and a pen. Its just like when I sit in class, I have my laptop out trying to retain all the information I can.

Still, Students want structure.

       I use to be very relaxed when it came to cell phones during small group. And students would pull them out at times, probably texting each other. One of the students blurted out "Can't you guys put your phones away for just a few minutes!" Then the group asked for a box. Heck, they even made the box. Now we have a box that we can just throw all of our phones in.