My name is Christopher Longfellow, and I am the pastor of a small church in suburban Chicago, IL. I’m six months into my adoption of the FlockTender 1000, and working to keep better notes on how I’m using, and the amazing changes it has introduced into my church, and how I interact with my parishioners.
First, I was amazed that almost 60% of my 230 parishioners have willingly adopted the FlockTender 1000. Each one of them have had to pay the $249.00 themselves to purchase the quantified-self device, and it took about three months to spread the word about their potential, but once a core group of 10% adopted, the rest followed without question.
For each of my parishioners, the FlockTender 1000 provides basic lifestyle and sin tracking, through basic location, financial, voice to text, heart rate, and gyroscope tracking—-as well as real-time confessions, through which we are able to track on about 90% of the major sins. Think of the FlockTender 1000 as the same as the auto insurance tracker for your driving habits, but it is for sins. Through big data analysis, we are able to identify the common sins, but in reality, our followers do most of the work, and confess the majority of their own sins in the face of their own big data.
For me and my staff, the FlockTender 1000 allows me to truly understand my flock. I understand my parishioners and their relationship with the church and god. I keep my iPad with me at all times, which gives me access to all data available via my parishioners devices and their connected lives. The world of church giving has also dramatically changed, with direct micro-payment connections to parishioners bank accounts and giving is directly connected to sin volume has transformed the way our church is financed.
Weekly I’m able to craft my sermons based upon what my flock faced throughout the week, and address the biggest concerns my flock has. As they walk in the door each week I’m able to guide them to sit in groups, allowing me to speak directly to them as part of my sermon. When I first learned about the quantified-self movement, I was skeptical. Six months in, I’m seeing it as quantified faith and it is transforming my church, the lives of my flock.
I strongly believe god has given us this technology to bring us closer to him. I look forward to the future of quantified faith and how technology can assist gods children in better understanding their relationship with god.
