We engage with technology in our churches to improve ministry—to enable online donations, to handle scheduling and volunteer activities. We do this to make work in the church office easier and more efficient and it usually does that. However, a problem arises when the congregation needs to be actively involved for the system to work. When this happens, instead of helping, your technology can actually limit your ministry.

Below are three reasons why the congregation does not embrace and may even resist the technology you want them to use. After the reasons are suggestions to increase acceptance of the technology and keep peace in the Body of Christ.

Reasons #1: The congregation doesn't have the same problems you do.

The congregation most likely is not searching for a system to improve the efficiency of how they volunteer or give. The system they have used for years to sign up for volunteer work, turn in their weekly tithe, stay updated on the news of the church is working just fine for them. They don't have to manually do the schedule, send out emails and track responses—they don't spend the hours in church office doing that.

When you introduce a new technology that will change their routine, and make life so much easier for you, they are not happy with it. "Why should the congregation do the work the church secretary was hired to do?" was the response one frustrated church secretary shared with me.

Solution suggestions: We can't assume anyone in the congregation understands how time-consuming and difficult various church tasks are. Before you launch a new system, spend some time communicating to the congregation why it is needed. Prior to informing the church "here is the new system—now use it," conduct a campaign to help them get ready for it. Help everyone to see the needs for all the church that the software will solve.

For example:

• Let the congregation know how many hours recording and tracking donations, volunteer positions or any other process you want to automate in the church. Most members of the congregation honestly have no idea.
• Share what happens when these tasks don't get done in a timely manner—how it hurts the financial integrity of the church or how people's needs may be unmet.
• Help them see how technology can make the pastoral staff more effective shepherds by making up-to-date information always available. Show how technology can prevent financial mistakes and provide current and correct accounting.
• Calculate how the technology will save time that more staff will not have to be hired and the cost-savings to the church because of it.

To make this campaign to help your congregation accept new technology effective requires more than one or two announcements from the platform. Explanations on your website, emails, social media, PowerPoint—repeated messages through all channels of communications are essential. Start several months ahead to be sure to your reach all the people, some of whom may not attend every week. It won't seem like you have time to this, but if you don't take the time ahead of launching a new system, you'll be forced to take the time afterwards when people have questions, objections, and outright anger at unexplained changes.

Reason #2: The congregation may not have the required technology.

"Everybody is mobile" is the current headline of an advertisement for church management software. That sounds good if you are selling a product that can be managed with a smart phone, but the problem is that when software developers think "mobile" in reality, they usually mean smart phone which greatly narrows the available audience. It is instructive that even though the age group they show with the largest usage (25-34) has a 62% usage, it means 38% of that same age group don't use a smart phone. The same chart shows that one of the most available groups for volunteers, 65+ is exactly reversed, 38% have one, and 62% do not. To adopt a system that will automatically leave out 38% to 62% of your congregation may not be a wise choice.

Suggested solutions: Before you adopt any new system, do a survey of your church to see how many have the required technology to take advantage of your proposed system. It may still make sense to adopt something that only part of your church can use, but do so with a plan to communicate the same information or services of the church to the people who don't have the required technology.

For example if you find that 50% of your church has a smart phone, but almost 90% access email regularly, you may want to get the technology that allows you to communicate to smart phone users, but also be sure you send out an email on the same topic. Or you can send out an email message and let people who have smart phones know they need to check their email through their phone.

Reason #3: Even if they have the needed technology, they may not know how to use it.

In the scenario above, even if people have smart phones, they may not know how to use all the features available to them. My nephew had to show me how to listen to sermons on the iPhone I got as a 99 cent upgrade with my phone plan. It was a very simple task, but I had no idea where to start. I know there are many other tasks I haven't taken time to learn how to do on the phone, including how to check email. I'm in my office far more than out and about with the phone and it's simply much easier for me to check email there.

Or imagine this scenario: a church does all the scheduling of mission trips for the church the church through an online scheduling system. Potential volunteers are told they must use this system—no exceptions. Potential volunteers for the trips will be informed of the schedule and all trip details through the online scheduling system—again, no exceptions. The church does not provide training on how to use the system, volunteers are told to look at the company website (that is complex and confusing) to learn how to use the software. The church is constantly frustrated because though people express interest in the trips, few follow through.

Suggested solution: the most important solution here is for the church staff to realize that not everyone today is comfortable with the computer, even if they have a computer. Not everyone accesses information in the same way even if they have the tools to do so.

These situations may be hard for young, tech-savvy natives in the church office to understand, but that's reality. Many of the Baby Boomer generation may have a computer in the house, but in many instances they will use it for one or two reasons, such as checking out pictures of the grandkids on Facebook or looking at sports scores, but they aren't comfortable with using it to accomplish tasks. They also don't use it every day and though they may have an email account, they may not look at it regularly.

At the same time, many Baby Boomers take early retirement and have the health and finances to do mission trips and other kinds of ministry in the church. If the church does not take the time to find out what technology tools people in this group uses and is comfortable working with, and perhaps training them to use new tools, they may lose invaluable resources in people and in giving.

Yes, it requires more work to do this, but in today's world of ever-changing technology training and accommodation is part of "equipping the saints to do the work of the ministry."

In addition, we do well to remember our Lord's commands to be a servant to all, to be all things to all people, to care for the "least of these" in the area of technology. It will take extra time and effort to teach people how to use the new technology you have, but much more than church efficiency is at stake here—it is a very practical way to show the world we care for each other and are more obedient to our Lord than the demands of efficiency.

On a practical note, one way that may help tremendously is for the church to demonstrate how to use the system by using Camtasia, a software that allows you to demonstrate how to use software by enabling you to create a video of you using it. If you create a video in your voice, using your church as the real example, you can then load it up to YouTube and make it available to your congregation. CLICK HERE to go to a short video that shows how this works.