Theology Technology

Today is my first day at a new (old) job.

Twelve years ago I left California in an east-bound semi loaded with the collective stuff (junk?) for two families, headed for Florida and adventures unknown. I didn't have a job nor a clue. The only thing I was certain of was that I wasn't ever going to be a pastor again.

I managed to keep that promise for 12 years through two careers and at least 4 different jobs. I worked at a non-profit for 5 years doing governmental work. I was on TV and met with mayors and county commissioners. I presented at national conferences. Then I went back to school and got my techie cred and worked for 5 years at a dot.com. I did desktop support work and network administrator work. I crawled under a lot of desks and repaired a lot of old laptops. I ran some really big dollar projects and played with terabytes of storage. I helped people fathom the mysteries of Outlook and Windows.

But there was always this undertone, this undercurrent, pulling and tugging at me at various strange times. Being on the ground floor of a new, upstart congregation. Leading in worship, along with my wife, every Sabbath (me, singing up front--go figure!). Preaching to a small congregation. Being a head elder. And then, in the last few years being called a pastor once again (though I always made it clear that it was a volunteer position). Despite my professional life, I kept coming back over and over again to what I had trained for all those years, and all those years ago. I could never completely outrun my past.

Today I start my new (old) job as a pastor once again. Only this time I get to merge these two divergent threads in my life, these two "ologies": tech and theo. Instead of being a pastor with a techie bent or being being a techie with an M.DIV degree (try explaining that one at a tech conference) at last I am a Pastor for Technology. The Theology of Technology. Technological Theology. No more hiding my techie cred at a pastor's meeting or hiding my pastor cred at a technical conference. I am finally out of the closet on both fronts: open and unashamed. And it feels good....