Spreading the Gospel, being a missionary, pioneering a new church; all of these things are great blessings and such an immense honor to do for God’s kingdom. Through these people, God can work so beautifully and spread His Word to every nation. We see this happen in the New Testament with Paul and the early churches and throughout history. Through word of mouth, letters and scribes, the God’s Word as travel all around the world and through time.
One device that truly changed how information was distributed was the printing press. Created in 1440, this mechanical movable printing machine introduced a new era of mass communication, which forever changed society. Information that was once restricted to the wealthy and powerful was now available to the public. This helped fuel the Protestant Reformation as Martin Luther was able to print his Ninety-Five Theses. It was then translated from Latin into German and within two weeks copies spread through all of Germany and in two months, it spread throughout Europe. This all took place within three years of Luther first nailing his theses to the door of the church.
This sort of mass communication had never been seen before and happened so quickly. The ability to print things on a massive scale like this is truly the work of God. Even the first major book printed on the press was the Gutenberg Bible. Through technology like this, the Word of God can be spread more effectively and efficiently. However, this can create a problem for those missionaries or pastors trying to pioneer churches. These days, the use of flyers to attract people to the church or give info about it, as well as, websites and other templates are used in the mission field. Oftentimes, they don’t have the resources or skill to create these sorts of things and it may become a burden to some.
Many Christian designers are beginning to see that need and are creating websites that provide mass Christian design resources. Sites like CreationSwap and Church Design Net are helping to create an even more efficient way to build God’s kingdom in a much more technologically advanced and fast-paced world, than the one during Martin Luther’s time. These websites provide templates for flyers, bulletins, posters and more, as well as, photos, power points, and tutorials in order to help ministers, missionaries and even other designers within the church. They even take requests on different flyers from churches and work with the leaders to create the desired work. Other sites and apps like LiveSwap are even providing website creation to be at anyone’s fingertips. LiveSwap is the first graphic design software built for expanding the kingdom. Founder of Already Been Chewed (a design and motion graphic studio), Barton Damer, comments, “Churches with and without design budgets will appreciate this.”
Many people are seeing sites like these fill in a much need role within every church as the age of the internet continues to grow and take form, this role will continue to be filled by many others in many different ways. Just like in the days of the printing press, society is moving quicker and the information is circulating faster. We, as God’s children, must not only push to keep up but keep going to stay ahead of the world and society. Our Father did not call us to follow the world but to help change and restore it. Just as the printing press was first used to print Bibles and start a Christian Reformation, we must use art and technology (and all things) to bring the truth of God into today’s culture and the future’s.
We must continue to pray as we work, pray as we create and pray in the great hope and belief, that any of us can be the ones God uses in building His kingdom. Through our work and through our ideas, God can start a movement even greater than that of the Reformation. This is what these websites and graphic designers wish to do and we, as any type of artists (visual or auditory), should hope to do. I truly believe with how globalized the world is now with these types of resources and the Internet, that through prayer and working together with God, the next great revival will truly be a worldwide revival. Let’s work together to begin this world revival through our art and talents; to restoring His kingdom.
Editorial by Danielle White
