Most Christians do not value or credit technology very much when it comes to preaching the Gospel. We will employ advances in technology as they are useful in this ministry but we correctly only view them as aids to achieve our goal of reaching the lost of this world. From a historical context however, we begin to notice that we owe a great debt to one particular technological improvement. In a study of the history of Lord's church we cannot help but notice that most of that early history has been written begins about the 14th Century. Of course, the most notable events of the Protestant Movement began then but there is something that happened concurrent with the unhappiness so many felt with Catholicism that often is not credited as it should be. Many of us modern day Christians do not fully comprehend the role that the invention of printing played in not just the spread of the Gospel but also the proliferation of churches of Christ.

It is no secret that the inventor of printing was a German named Johann Genstleisch zum Gutenberg, who was born in the city of Mainz, Germany in 1397. The wealth of the Gutenberg family freed Johann for a life of leisure and pleasure during which he developed an interest in technology, primarily seal-making and goldsmithing.

In 1438 Gutenberg started a business that produced religious mirrors in Strasbourg. By that time he was considered a master craftsman in metalworking. There is evidence that by 1444 Gutenberg had returned to Mainz to set up a printing shop. As a goldsmith he had cut letters and symbols into precious metals and into wax to form molds to cast jewelry. It is unknown exactly how he conceived of casting letters for printing. However, the concept of "mirror' images was common knowledge.

Gutenberg's casting process involved first cutting a letter by hand in reverse on a piece of hard metal, then punching the letter shape into a soft copper mold to form a die called a matrix. He next needed a suitable metal to cast in the matrix. He experimented with pewter hardened with large quantities of antimony, but the mixture shrank when it cooled and pulled away from the matrix. The letters formed were imperfect. Gutenberg's experience with lead in mirror manufacturing encouraged him to try a combination of lead, tin, and antimony. His original formula (5 percent tin, 12 percent antimony, and 83 percent lead) is used nearly unchanged in casting today. Characters can be perfectly cast with this alloy because it expands when it cools and forms a duplicate of the matrix cavity. Using Gutenberg's system, two workers could cast and dress (trim away excess material) twenty-five pieces of type an hour.

Gutenberg's most notable work, a forty-two-line-a-page Bible, was begun in 1452 and completed by 1455. Each page contained around 2,800 characters. Two pages were printed at the same time, so 5,600 pieces of type were needed to make each two-page printing. It was the practice for the next two pages to be composed during the press run of the current two, so at least 11,200 letters were needed to even begin printing. Working a normal workday (twelve hours), it took two craftsmen more than thirty-seven workdays just to prepare the initial type. At this rate, more than three years were needed to complete just two hundred copies of Gutenberg's Bible.