There is no point trying to drag weans unwillingly to the Kirk of a Sunday morning or, indeed, any other time.
The Right Reverend Albert Bogle says so. He should know since he is the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.
The Rt Rev Bogle is also a blogger, a Godcaster, and even at the age of 63 aware of the possibilities of wooing the young ones with the social media on the electronic devices to which they have become addicted.
Leading the young flock to the Lord via the iPad or iPhone will be easier said than done. You can fill iTunes with the Kirk's greatest hits such as My Cup Is Full and Running Over and If You're Happy and You Know It Clap Your Hands. But will the children follow the iPied iPiper?
Will a simple invitation to get Linkedin to Jesus do the trick? Will Bebo boost the ranks of the BB? Will that teenager on the bus have Songs of Praise on the iPod?
Some subterfuge may be required. Like an announcement on Facebook that there is a party at an empty. Hundreds of teenagers turn up to drink and trash the house. They are confronted by a team of hardened Kirk elders who seat them in orderly rows.
After a few choruses of Will Your Anchor Hold in the Sea of Life, there is a talk from a cool rev.
Maybe even the moderator himself who not only tweets but sings in his own Bogle Band and goes to T in the Park. He can tell kids how to get access all areas to the Kingdom of God.
There is an app called Yoof Culchur available on the Church of Scotland website. It charts changes in youth culture since the 1950s under such headings as Madonna's bra and Britney shaves head.
You will find it under Madstuff.biz, which I thought was the Kirk going all wicked on us but it turns out the mad stands reassuringly for mission and discipleship.
The Rt Rev Bogle is a Godcaster because he sends the services from his church in Bo'ness out on to the internet. Sleepyheads can tune in to his sermon from bed. Or over a coffee in Starbucks. You could even get streaming in the pub.
Can an enterprising Kirk go viral?
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article