Book Review: The Next Story by Tim Challies

[Michael Ballai]

 

I'm a geek, a nerd, a hacker. I've been using computers since the middle 1980s and they might find traces of silicon in my bloodstream if they cared to look. That's not to brag; it's simply to point out that I readily confess to being a chronic techaholic. I'm probably the perfect person to read Tim Challies' book and then to confess and repent of my desire for things digital.

 

Tim is an extremely knowledgeable person on the subject of technology and he writes of that understanding as a believer. So I was eager to see what he might say about the blessings and curses of technology. 

 

If you want to read one book on the subject and then get on with it, it's very good. It will challenge you to take another look at how you think about technology as a believer. Most people make a lot of assumptions about technology and that's where one is liable to miss the mark. And if there's even just one or two new ideas, you won't be disappointed.

 

I managed to read it through in less a day and probably need to go through it once more. We're the problem more than the technology. Technology misused only reveals our sinfulness. I believe that the reason for this book lies more in the fact that we still have Aaron's complicity with technology. We listen to men and do their bidding and then point to the calf that comes out of the fire without ever mentioning the fact that our own hands shaped it. And having built an altar and made an appointed time, we wonder why we have a problem. 

 

The author's strength in all this is in his own admissions of weakness towards technology. There's something about the allure of self sufficiency that pervades this all. We still seem to look at what we can do rather than what He can do.

 

Copyright © Michael Ballai 2011 

[ScottL]

I always appreciated these words of Tom Brokaw - ‘What or who was blamed for the flaws of the world before television. It has become a handy, all-purpose scapegoat.’

 

As you say, I think we have to be careful to blame everything on technology. Paul said nothing in and of itself was evil. We can utilise it very well or very badly. We can choose, and we must not let it master us. That is why a classic like Richard Fosters', Freedom of Simplicity, can be good to dip into every so often as well.

 

I am overwhelmed with what technology can do. I have a phone with an app on it that allows me to watch my parent's tv from the US while I am in Belgium. And I can record programmes as well on their tv. And this doesn't mess with them if they are watching it at the same time. I can now video chat with my family on an iPad, have tons of Bible translations for study, tons of books for study and pleasure, etc. And this all is the same on my phone.

 

I am currently looking to develop a project for our churches and ministry colleges, all based on an internet tablet. What a resource today to put teachings (audio and video files), Bible translations, PDF files of teaching notes, books, etc, and then pass it on to a pastor in the developing world, or even in the western world. Such capabilities for training.

 

And, again, we must desire to see this technology used wisely. We must not be ruled by it or see it as our power. It can only be a supplement to relational-based training and Spirit-empowered outreach.