December 3, 2001

ANNOUNCING ABC's WEBSITE

I never thought I would write an article about this. Many of you have encountered my "Bah-Humbug" approach to things that are high-tech. I have made public statements about going down to my grave computer-illiterate, the last real human who has not been robotized. Well, alas, I have been corrupted! A computer virus has gotten by all my defenses. I have actually been seen with my hand on a mouse.

Now don't laugh as I try to sound as if I know what I'm talking about in the rest of this article.

Thanks to Kathryn Bassett, the church now has a Website: www.altadenabaptist.org. Much of the information on it is still sketchy; the skeleton is there, but little meat is on the bones. However, the possibilities now are unlimited. Those of you with Internet capability will enjoy watching as this ABC Website takes shape and develops a distinctive personality.

One of the things made possible by this is the immediate communication of the ABC Messenger to your home. As soon as it is written (usually on Monday afternoon), it will be placed on the Website and can be read by you and your family. You can check this out right now, because we've already begun posting it.

This raises two interesting possibilities:

(1) More timely communication with the ABC family. You will know about prayer requests, important issues, and scheduled events as soon as the church office does. This will be a welcome change. Many people have complained that bulk mailing is so inefficient that they don't receive their Messenger until it is a week or more old. And that's just the people who live in Altadena! If you read your Messenger on the Website, you'll no longer be able to blame the Post Office for your lack of timely knowledge; you'll have to blame yourself for not opening the site and reading it.

(2) Also, if enough people opt to receive their Messenger in this way, we will be able to reduce considerably the cost of our weekly mailings. With the current pressure on our budget, we've been discussing whether we need to cut back to bi-weekly, or monthly. We'd hate to see that happen, because the Messenger is like the life-blood of ABC. It's surprising how many people from all over the country keep up with one another through its pages. However, if a significant number of people choose to receive their Messenger through the Website, we'll be able to maintain our current schedule and still cut back expenses.

In order to evaluate how effective this will be, we need to have some feedback from you. There is a survey attached. We hope you will take the time to fill it out and mail it back. Or you can communicate your response to us by e-mail, proving that you too have moved boldly into the high tech future.

All this expanding communications potential in our day makes me wonder about God's wisdom. Wouldn't it have been smarter to send his Son into the world 2000 years later than he did? Jesus could have been born in East LA (even his first name could have been the same). Then he could have been educated in our free public schools and begun his ministry with a bi-lingual store-front church. Then the ministry could have grown to hit the big time: radio, TV, direct mass-mailing, Internet Websites, sophisticated training seminars for his disciples.

How inefficient! Born in a stable, raised in a small, backward country, limited to sandal-power to develop his itinerant ministry, preaching without a PA system. He'll never change the world that way.

Oh, oh; that old "Bah-humbug" feeling has come over me again. I've got to get back to the here and now. In his wisdom, God has allowed us to be part of this generation's great opportunity in communication. We need to do all we can to maximize the use of every means to get his message out to the world around us. Thanks for helping us.

–Pastor George Van Alstine