With the technological advancement everything is going electronics and the church also has embraced the same to keep with the trends.
It started with E-mail,then e-learning and so the culmination of M-pesa,pesa pap, m-banking and now the m-church for the christian religion.
Even after the first major technological advancement by Johannes Gutenberg to produce Bible in many languages, expanding the church community into the virtual world has become a major objective for churches. Maybe this is in line with the commandment made by Jesus to His disciples “Go and make disciples of all nations”.
However despite fostering disciples,publicity and enlarging the communities. the live stream sermons,discussions inspirational and devotion services may lead to the replacement of traditional churches as excuses for missing mass services will be rampant. The once vibrant community that used to meet physically may lose the chance to do so at least for now.
The effect will be that people will remain separate and phisically disconnected, a sense of brotherhood and belonging like the once experienced during days of extended families will evaporate and dissapear in the air.
With over 4,000 registered mainstream and lesser known churches in kenya one would not want to imagine how many congregants registered with the social sites missing a mass service on a Sunday while the Bishop streams live sermon on his/her office.
Even if the technology has eased our lively hood it should be monitored with care not to deter the brotherhood, the sense of belonging that are held close at heart.
Conrad Onyango.
