I NEED BOOKS AND COMPUTERS, ETC. SO MY FAMILY WILL HAVE TO KEEP THE FINANCIAL BELT TIGHT. Preachers furnish many of their working tools. Their support is not their salary. Their support minus expenses for doing the work of an evangelist is the real salary. Expenses may include an automobile, books, computers, office supplies, telephone, etc. How much of these things are WANTED rather than NEEDED cannot always be determined by others. But, preachers must balance these wants and needs with the wants and needs of his family. He should not neglect his family just to have a better computer or another book. Many have been the times I have wondered if preachers spent less time with modern gadgets and books written by denominational writers, and more time with their head in the word of God, would churches not be better off? Now, before you think I must be living in the woods all by myself, let me tell you that I have three computers. A communications critic and professor named Neil Postman has written several books. Two of them I have read, AMUSING OURSELVES TO DEATH and TECHNOPOLY. Postman suggests that in this age we can gather a lot of material we have NOT LEARNED. And brethren that goes for preachers, too. Why is it that with the multiplication of translations of the Bible and new information storage techniques, we have so much Biblical illiteracy and so many doctrinal problems in the brotherhood? I am not against progress, but we know that the government's mentality of throwing money at a problem does not solve it. Why do we think that throwing more money at spiritual work and problems in the church is the solution? Is our emphasis in the wrong place? It is not wrong to have books, computers, etc. but are these modern gadgets making us any more effective? Mr. Postman said that Marshall McLuhan was the author of the expression, "The medium is the message." Ask yourself, Is the computer the message? Is the overhead projection the message? Or, the computerized presentation the message? Is the preacher the message? Or, are we just busy doing something that does not really need to be done? This is very definitely connected with our attitude toward our money. Study carefully. - Glenn Melton

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Last Revised: Tuesday, December 28, 1999