The history books tell us that the world of communications was changed with the invention of printing presses. The original method of printing was block printing, pressing sheets of paper onto individually carved wooden blocks. Block printing is believed to have originated in Asia. The oldest printed work is believed to be a Buddhist poem which was recently unearthed in Korea. In Europe, block printing was used to print Bibles. Because of the difficulties in carving every letter on every page, and one block being used per page it was extremely time consuming to print different books. Often books were condensed into pictures and a few words.
Church work was transformed by Gutenberg’s printing press. Prior to the invention of the printing press there were few Bibles and fewer people who could read. So the only way you heard the scripture as a common person was to go to Church. Even then the worship service was led in Latin – which few understood.
In our lifetime we have seen the development of the typewriter and then the computer and its use for desktop publishing. I confess I never wrote a paper using a typewriter – but I hear it was done. Even right now I am typing, correcting, cutting and pasting this article for the newsletter on my laptop in Chicago and will email it to Sheila at the church in Brazoria who will then print it in the newsletter which will go out through snail mail and email.
The internet has revolutionized a lot of things. People can now email each other, post pictures of grandchildren, and even make phone calls over the internet around the world for pennies. There has been a revolution of information on the web. Now kids keep their diaries online called weblogs, and teens meet friends and talk about school on social networking sites like myspace.com.
For most young adults – the internet is a first stop for research – whether it is looking for the nearest pizza place – or finding classmates from when they were in elementary school. The phone book, the library and other print versions of information are back ups for young adults. They prefer the fluid and dynamic nature of the web.
All of this is to say that FUMC, Brazoria, TX has taken the first step of reaching out to young adults by establishing a presence on the web. Our website can be found at www.brazoriafumc.org. On the website you can find the location of the church, times of the services and descriptions of the ministries of the church. We also have electronic versions of the newsletter and eventually the bulletins as they are made available. And of course if you see something lacking don’t hesitate to mention it – the site can be changed by Sheila and is easily done at no cost.
Granted Jesus didn’t have a website – but he did have a passion for people. He was willing to go to where the people were so that they could hear about the Gospel. May it be so for us here at FUMC-Brazoria.
