Moving the Tennessee Baptist Convention to the 21st Century

Will and I had a great dinner last night in Nashville and he asked me to put down in words some technology ideas for Tennessee Baptists. I promised no war stories about my experiences in Southeast Asia with an IBM punch card machine called Elvis, but reference that memory only to let readers know that technology isn't all that new to this old f*rt.

Will pointed me to today's article in the Baptist state paper, The Baptist and Regurgitator (I think that is the name, anyway *grin*). There's a story about the upcoming convention in east Tennessee at the Kingsport Convention Center. The article speaks to the shrinking numbers in attendance each year and bemoans the projection, "the attendance to be less than it was in 1998." Ron Stewart, our fearless fundamentalist leader, is quoted: "I believe the Lord is working with us to create a convention that is able to minister to the constantly changing culture of the 21st century." Well, fundamentally, I agree with brother Ron.

Here is my top 5 list of suggestions to get the Tennessee Baptist Convention out of the Gutenberg era into something beyond the current century's Gutenberg Project decade:

1. For less than 1/10th of the money that the TBC is wasting on lawyers to sue Belmont University, the entire Tennessee Baptist Convention annual meeting could be made available via streaming video to anyone in the convention who wanted to watch on a cable-speed Internet connection. I'd guess that some would be willing to pay a subscription for such a service. The technology is affordable and available NOW.

2. If the TBC wants to demonstrate real leadership, allow churches to securely register messengers as online participants in the meeting. A unique ballot code could be distributed to those who are validated through their respective churches and when it comes time to vote during the convention, many could submit their votes electronically. I'll be the first to offer up the argument that this system might be manipulated...but it couldn't be as manipulated as votes in 1980's era SBC meetings where leaders held up color-coded cards telling their constituent blocks just how to vote on issues. The technology is affordable and available NOW.

3. The state paper could easily host moderated discussions using the current space they are wasting on the TBC web site to regurgitate the print edition. Many newspapers have opened up online articles for follow-up questions and comments. These comments could easily be moderated so that just the views of whatever flavor of leadership is running the convention would actually show up on the web site. The technology is affordable and available NOW.

4. Open up the TBC's newspaper to churches in the convention to electronically post praise and prayer requests. There are great things happening in our churches AND in our institutions that members in TBC churches should be allowed to read. There is certainly no room for such requests in the murdered-tree (i.e. print-version) version of the B&R and I am sure that the B&R staff is not large enough to cover all of our churches in this constantly changing culture of the 21st century. Allow some democracy into the world of Baptist state paper journalism, it could be a breath of fresh air instead of the staleness that we witness currently. And, again, the technology is affordable and available NOW.

5. Let's be honest with one another and realize that an annual (i.e. one meeting each year) is hardly realistic with the pace of change in the lives of our churches in the 21st century. Even if we stick with one face-to-face fellowship meeting each year, there is absolutely no reason that a quarterly electronic meeting couldn't be organized so that more of our members can be involved at some level. Let's be creative and innovative in the way we do committee meetings...Cracker Barrel will survive without us. And if this old man can understand enough to make it work, I would not entertain the nonsense that too many churches wouldn't be able to participate...that is fresh-off-the-steeple pigeon poop. And, (you guessed it), the technology is affordable and available NOW!

We could start with the basics and advise all Tennessee Baptists that the little tray that shoots out from their personal computers ISN'T a holder for a coffee cup. I'd even be willing to propose reconstituting the 19th century's WCTU. Listen to the Baptist sound of this: Wholesome Computer Training Union.