Panel discusses tech, older adults and churches

While many churches have employed technology to enhance and broaden their reach in recent years, they have sometimes struggled over ways to include older parishioners for whom digital connections aren’t second nature.

Methodist Theological School in Ohio will address the issue in a virtual conversation, “Technology, Older Adults and Churches: Opportunities and Challenges,” at 7 p.m. Eastern Aug. 31. The event, part of MTSO’s Science and Religion Digital Dialogues series, is free to the public.

Advance Zoom registration is required and available here.

“Technology, Older Adults and Churches” brings together Heidi Campbell, Texas A&M University professor of communication, and Marilyn Stratford, an independent scholar and consultant.

Campbell is a Presidential Impact Fellow at Texas A&M and is director of the Network for New Media, Religion and Digital Culture Studies. She co-edited the book Digital Religion: Understanding Religious Practice in Digital Media. Stratford recently finished research on the challenges and motivations of technology use among older adults at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

The Science and Religion Digital Dialogues series serves MTSO students, faculty, staff and alumni, as well as members of the public, addressing challenges to meaningful science and religion dialogues and to encouraging public engagement with science. It is made possible through the Science for Seminaries project of the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Dialogues on Science, Ethics, and Religion program.

Methodist Theological School in Ohio provides theological education and leadership in pursuit of a just, sustainable and generative world. In addition to the Master of Divinity degree, the school offers master’s degrees in practical theology, social justice and theological studies, along with a Doctor of Ministry degree.

CONTACT:

Danny Russell, communications director
drussell@mtso.edu, 740-362-3322