interactivity

Our generation needs to interact with information before we can absorb it. Have you noticed what news outlets are doing these days? They all have blogs. They all have news hours where you can get on Twitter or Facebook and comment on the news in real time. Even ESPN is now doing polls where you can interact with the stories.

It seems that we are bombarded with so much information in this "information age," that we have developed built in filters. Our filters are best at repelling information that is unsolicited. The filters are also strong when it comes to information that communicates "at" us rather than "with" us.

This is why we crave interactivity. We need to interact with information before we can absorb it. We need to express our opinion, ask questions, and dialog. If we are given the space to do this, then our ears open up to the truth of what was said. This is why Link Groups have the potential to develop lasting spiritual growth. Is there a way to expand this sort of Link Group-like interactivity throughout our community? Well, we believe there is.

In light of our changing culture and ever evolving ways of absorbing information, Horizon Church of Towson will embark on two new interactive experiments. First, on our website, we have created a space for a simple poll. Leadership will be able to ask general questions to the church as a whole and people will be able to respond by answering the poll question. This interactive feedback will hopefully help people engage more in the direction and decisions of the church.

The second interactive experiment will happen on Sunday mornings. We will add to our normal Sunday morning experience a time of interaction. After the sermon and music, we will open the floor for a time of asking the communicator questions.

In order to keep the flow and answer as many questions as possible, we will use text messaging as our primary source of interaction. The congregation will text questions to a designated phone throughout the service and whoever delivered the message that morning will field those questions.

This coming Sunday will be our first experience with this experiment. Our hope is that increasing the level of interactivity will increase the absorbency of the messages on Sunday.