PC Workshop Lives On

Five to six years ago, I had this idea, a concept of outreach within the church.  Honestly, I think God gets the credit on this one, He has better ideas than I do and should get the credit.

If you are an IT guy/girl in your church, or even a media person, you are probably viewed as the go to guy/girl for 3/4 of the church to come to when their computers are not working right.  At some point, it made sense to have a workshop where a bunch of us geeky type folks get together and offer our services to fix, clean up or install new hardware.

A great ministry to your church members but also a great opportunity for members to bring in their unchurched friends and let them see us serving them in a way where we expect nothing in return.  Essentially, they could see Jesus through us.  I believe there are many people who will not step foot in church on Sunday morning but if you tell them your church will fix their computer for no charge, they will be there.  This gives the opportunity to build relationships with these unchurched people and that is how you win people to Christ, through relationship.

As a result, the PC Workshop was born.

It took a few years for this to become reality, but it finally did.  First, at a pastor friend’s church, then at my own.  In fact, that was the first project I did at my last church and that is honestly how the Tech Ministrycame about.  Being new to the church, I didn’t really know anyone but I wanted to pull this off, so I wrote up the announcement and in it I said the PC Workshop is being brought to you by the Tech Ministry.  At the moment I wrote that, the Tech Ministry consisted of me and……..me!

I believed there were people around me with an interest in helping and maybe even a little skill, so I started getting the word out.  Believe it or not, people came forward and it was a great time.  People wanted to be part of this Tech Ministry and they wondered what exactly a Tech Ministry was all about.  Over time, we defined what it was for our church.

We did 5 or 6 PC Workshops over a year and a half and as people asked any of us to fix their computer, we were able to say on this date is the next PC Workshop, come on by.  I viewed this time not only as a time to fix but a time to educate because I would rather teach you how to maintain your computer instead of  just repeatedly fix it for you all the time.

One of the goals a leader should have is that the work that was started will continue after he is gone.  This is true for me and I worked hard to build up the leadership under me to be able to carry on with or without me.

With that being said, I am happy to announce a PC Workshop tonight at Fairview Christian Church in Carthage and it has been put together by my successor, Daniel (@dmeyer302).  I told him awhile back if he did it, I would be there to help and I’m very excited about it because I have no responsibility tonight.  I’m simply a helper and it will be fun to be back with some old friends.  Daniel has recruited some new people to help out as well.

So, come on by and hang out with us! Come in the south doors and the conference room is on the left, just down the hall, it will be obvious once you get in the door, I’m sure.