Speaker Spotlight: James Doc

Why are you passionate about digital?

It feels like the church used to be on the cutting of technology, using it boldly to assist disciple-making. Be that harnessing the power of the printing press to make the Bible accessible, or being among the first to install a phone line into a vicarage to better support the needs of the community (by the way, that became The Samaritans).

Technology provides so much potential to help us to share the gospel of Jesus Christ further than ever, to love our neighbour, to provide for the needs widow and the orphan… but as technology grows it often gets more complicated, harder to understand, harder to join the dots between a gospel need and a technology based solution (not that tech is always the answer). I want to explore more of what happens at the intersection, the coming together of Christianity and technology in the 21st century, and then to help others to do the same…

What can people expect from your session?

I’m going to be involved in two sessions at PremDAC this year.

In the first sessions we’ll be beginning to think about your church website. Perhaps you’re just thinking about setting your first one up, or maybe you’re thinking that you’re current one is looking a bit dated… We’re going to be thinking about how to go about building a church website, what should be there, what really shouldn’t! We’ll cover a range of topics; digging into content and images, how to go about building a site yourself, and recommendations for agencies who will help build one for you.

In the other session I’ll be doing a bit of future-gazing thinking about how the church use voice assistants… we’ve heard of Siri, Amazon Echo and all the rest, but do they have any place within the church? We’ll look at some of the different areas the church has already begun to explore and then look ahead to some of the other opportunities and dangers that they present…

What most excites you about # PremDAC18 (other than your own session!)?

PremDAC is a great opportunity to come together from church across the UK, to think more about what digital tools have to offer the church. You get to hear from churches who have tried things before and learn from their lessons, you have a chance to think about different ways of using digital tools, and you get to hear from experts in different fields. And it’s an affordable conference!