First Church of the Nazarene: www.wburgnaz.com

WARRENSBURG, Mo. -- Technology has changed the lives of many in recent years, with inventions like the Internet and MP3 players.

Some Warrensburg churches are taking advantage of these innovations, although each has its own way of using these technologies.

The Church of the Brethren, 802 E. Hale Lake Rd., which has about 45 worshipers on a typical Sunday and about 125 members, has a small Web site.

Although it is a small church, the Web site’s manager, Jim Tomlonson, said it has been up a year and has about 660 hits. He said he gets help from the younger people on the computer.

“I think that we have about four youths that are pretty savvy,” Tomlonson said. “In fact, two of them help me in maintaining (the site).”

The Web site gives basic information about the church and its beliefs, along with the weekly bulletin. The pastor can also be e-mailed from it.

Its Web site comes from a main site that covers other Churches of the Brethren.

The Church of Christ, 722 S. Maguire St., has its own site, and is one of the churches in the community that posts sermons.

Sacred Heart Catholic Church, 308 S. Ridgeview Drive, with a congregation of about 550 people, has a Web site that is a little bigger. In addition to the e-mail, bulletin and basic information, the site also offers information on the youth programs in the church, including preschool.

Church of the Brethren: www.brethren.org

The site for the Church of Christ, 214 N. Washington Ave., covers Church of Christ congregations throughout the world, as does The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on DD Highway and the Community of Christ, 700 S. Mitchell St.

One of the churches in Warrensburg that uses a lot of technology is the Church of Nazarene, 603 E. Hale Lake Road. Although its site is similar to Sacred Heart’s, it includes other programs, like the Great Balls of Fire Golf Tournament. The site has been up since July 7, 2004, and has gotten more than 33,428 hits.

Youth pastor Ray Walters said that although the Web site is a good way to get a church’s name to the public, the site doesn’t promote by itself.

“This is a tool,” Walters said. “Bringing someone into a church is not by Web site. A lot of them make a phone call. We’ll bring them in as a personal invitation or a personal relationship. So, we don’t rely on the Web site to work for us. We use it as a tool to say ‘Hey, read about the church and ask me questions.'”

The Church of Nazarene makes other uses of technology. Walters said the church puts the sermons on CDs and MP3s. The church sends them to people who couldn’t make the service through mail and the Internet. These people include Armed Forces personnel who have been deployed, particularly from Whiteman Air Force Base.

“I think it is especially good for our guys who are overseas, because of the fact that they stay connected,” Walters said. “When one young man came back from Iraq, he said ‘One of the comforts that I had was listening to that CD. I could hear people that I knew singing the songs. I could hear my pastor’s voice, and it helped me through this tough time.'”

Walters said he also keeps in touch with teens of the church through MySpace, Facebook and Twitter.

“Right now, it is the best doorway into the kids’ lives,” Walters said. “College (students) and teenagers use that as their personal diaries, or personal logs. You want to know where somebody is, you log into Facebook and it will tell you in 30 seconds. You want to know what someone is thinking, log onto Twitter and it will tell you in 5 seconds. You want to know what is going on in the kids’ lives, you read those two things and you have a basis to go on. It’s a tool. It’s not the end-all, be-all. It’s a way that you can be in the kids’ lives.”