HeatHack – Leveraging Technology to Support Communities

Summary

God wants us to use all our gifts, including scientific skills, in a faith and life that are wholly intertwined. We will build an open community that uses electronics, physics, engineering, and behavioural science skills to understand churches, what they’re for, how they’re used, and what they could be. Our first activity will involve building and using something that’s a bit like a weather station, but indoors: a wireless sensor network that monitors temperature and relative humidity in a set of key locations and can, for instance, tweet it. That will let us “do science” in the service of the church and community – looking at everything from air movement to what makes people feel cold. On the way, we’re sure to discover many things about ourselves, our skills, and our attitudes towards faith and the church. A “hacker” is someone who enjoys exploring the human potential for playful cleverness, often with technology behind it. We hope to engage not just our own congregations, but also people from other churches who want to understand their buildings, and hackers everywhere, for this playfulness with a purpose.

Websites

www.heathack.org

Key Questions

1. Does working together on a science project for the joy of it, or in the service of the church, lead people to deeper relationships in which they are more open about their faith?
2. When is creating a faith activity, when is it just making something, and does using science make a difference to the answer?
3. Does the presence of technology, or change made possible by scientific advances, alter the sacredness of a space, and what does that tell us about worship?
4. What kinds of people can have calls? Does exploring and celebrating the service that scientists can bring to the church encourage better understandings of personal calls?

Continuing work on science and faith.