The Cellphone Bible
On the last Sunday of January, the sermon was interrupted by a catchy ringtone from a congregant’s cellphone. On many Sundays, we remind everyone to turn off cellphones or put them in silent mode. My purpose today is not to chastise anyone for forgetting to turn theirs off, but rather to discuss the use of them in our services.
I have not thought of this subject nor discussed it in many months since we rarely experience a ringtone. However, this incident was immediately followed upon by an article that reached my inbox and thus the issue was before me again. This article emphasized the distraction of phones and the need to abandon the screen to focus our attention on God. I thought this quote staked the ground on this issue very well:
“…the transcendence of a Christian worship service is not an escape from the real world, but the entry into a realer world than what we’ve seen all week. It’s here that we brush up against heavenly realities. It’s here we’re confronted with time-tested truth. As we hear the Word of God preached and as we approach the Lord’s Table, we’re ushered toward a thin space where we encounter the One who summons us to worship and promises his presence.
“What role does the phone play in this environment? Yes, you can read your Bible on your phone as the pastor begins the sermon. You can send a text of encouragement to a fellow believer. You can take notes on your phone for reference later. But the pull of the phone toward multitasking—that urge to check Twitter or Instagram, or scroll past the incessant notifications that still arrive even when your phone is silenced—makes it nearly impossible to give undivided attention to God.”
I do not write this article or cite this quote as one who is innocent. I have had my share of distractions in church services. Since I usually preach instead of listen, this does not happen often. Although I use an iPad for my notes, one of the critical preparations for preaching is to turn off the internet connection and the volume for reminders, so that I see nothing and hear nothing as I preach. I have forgotten to do this on a few occasions, and you might be surprised to learn that an email header would appear obscuring my notes and I must get rid of it while at the same time maintaining my composure and leaving you unaware of my anxious dilemma.
The cellphone left on is a distraction which none can deny. In a room full of 3000 preachers at the Shepherd’s Conference, you would be shocked at how many have one eye (or neither) on the speaker and the other on the phone reading texts, checking scores, or researching something they just heard. This is surely a problem in our church too. My major concern, however, is that people never handle the book to find their place in the congregational scripture readings or the texts used for the sermon. Because you use the cellphone Bible at church and at home, I wonder how many touch the book at all.
I know most Christians do not regularly read the Bible. I hope our statistics are higher than average, but I am sure if we required everyone to fill out a form each week reporting how much of the Bible you read, the result would be too dismal and depressing for me to give the account to the congregation. If we are not touching the book at home or at church and the cellphone is our only connection to it, who could find their place in the Bible if we required phones to be checked at the door?
I am not a fan of the cellphone Bible. Though I use the computer with a screen and an electronic Bible for preparing sermons, I rarely use the cellphone or tablet for my daily reading. You can argue with me until the rapture that reading the cellphone does not diminish retention. I will never believe it because of experience and by observing what digital learning has done to our children’s brains. I do not intend to ban cellphones from the services, but I much prefer the rustling of pages to the sounds of clever rings.
Pastor V. Mark Smith