Why isn’t church using Internet
technology to cut meeting costs?

I was talking to a friend by Internet messenger. My friend is in Oklahoma, so it would have been expensive to converse on a long distance phone call and even more expensive to drive there to see him.
But communicating to his computer cost next to nothing. I wondered why our church doesn’t take advantage of computer technology for meetings?
If we were to have committee meetings on the Internet instead of in San Antonio, Kerrville or wherever, what a time and money saver that would be. With a webcam—a camera made for use with the Internet—we could see one another and talk over a microphone to one another without leaving our own offices.
We would have access to the data we had gathered, not having to worry about possibly leaving a critical piece at home when we went to the meeting.
Instead of paying $2.10 or more for each gallon of gas we burned getting to the meeting and home again, instead of spending an hour or two driving to the meeting and then home again, instead of being exhausted from the trip and losing those hours traveling, think of the time, money, and wear and tear on our cars—and our nerves—we could save.
And just think of the pollutants we would no longer throw into the air driving down the road.
If we were to attend that same meeting from the relative quiet and comfort of our own offices—for little or no cost to ourselves and our churches—what a boon that would be to both of us.
Now, of course, there are security concerns, and how many people could instant message at one time? Those concerns, however, can be alleviated by using a commercial service, such as GoToMeeting, WebEx or LiveOfficeIMConferencing. These services already have the necessary firewalls and can accommodate up to 1,000 people.
Most of our meetings won’t involve more than a dozen people, and these are handled very easily on line.
Of course, you do need broadband communications (high speed Inter-net). For me it would mean going to Lampasas, only 19 miles from my church, to attend a meeting with Ricky Burk at First UMC and whatever group we were meeting with.
If you are already in a place where broadband is available, you wouldn’t have to go anywhere, just to your office.
Think about how many meetings you go to every year. How much could be saved, if instead of driving to all of those meetings, we would have to drive to only one or two? The rest could be handled from our offices.
We in the church need to be looking at these types of uses of the Internet for a number of reasons. Think of the environmental impact if we meet on the Internet instead of driving.
And how about our district superintendents? They put thousands of miles on their vehicles every year. What if they could cut out travel to 10 meetings a year? They would save a lot of wear and tear on themselves and the environment.
Businesses all over the world are communicating in this fashion and saving a lot of money and time doing so. Isn’t it time for the church to get on board?