Give The Gift of Shoes

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Can the Church Catch Up?


I've been thinking about this for a while.  Can the typical church catch up to the frenzy of progression that is happening in technologically oriented fields?  Better yet, does it want to?  Or even better, does it need to?

 In 1965, Gordon Moore, inventor of an integrated circuit and co-founder of Intel, observed that the number of transistors that can be placed on an integrated circuit increases at an exponential rate, doubling every two years.  This observation, over the past 40 or so years, has proven itself to be true and is known as Moore's Law (not to be confused with Mooer's law, which basically says people may not want more information because it will probably mean they have to think more. While the two actually have a very interesting implications when put together, that's not what I'm interested in today).

Moore's law has immense implications for anything with technology (specifically integrated circuits) at it's core.  For awhile people, even Moore himself, thought we were at an end to Moore's law, but recent work in silicon based transistors has extended the reality of the exponentially increasing rate of technology.  What this mean is, we have moved from the first programmable computer (Charles Babbage, concept in 1812-1822) to the modern handheld computer in less than 200 years.  And 200 years is nothing more than a blip on the 100,000 year history of modern humanity.   So, imagine the progress we've made in that tiny little blip (from a general concept of computers to handheld, wireless web-surfing) and just try to extrapolate exponentially where we will be in the next 20 years - it's mind boggling.

Now, look at the past 200 year history of the church.  The Great Schism was more than 900 years ago.  Luther's 95 Thesis and the resulting split from the Catholic Church was almost 500 years ago.  In the last 200 years...well, we do catch the tail end of the Second Great Awakening, but let's face it we've resisted any change or advancements for the most part.  A quick glance at The Presbyterian Hymnal shows a remarkable number of songs from more than 200 years ago.

So, while the world (particularly the technological part of it) has raced ahead at light speed, the church has clung to the past, changing when it was forced to, but remaining relatively consistent over the past 200 years.  Honoring our past, our history, is very important and is something for we should strive.  Living in the past, however, is not something for which we should strive.

At heart here is the question of relevance.  Many of today's young people sight the lack of the church's relevance in their lives as the reason the do not attend church.  Did you catch that?  Not, they don't believe in God.  Not, they don't like the worship service.  They don't find the church relevent for their modern lives.

So, is it that the church is no longer relevant in young people's lives or could it be that in holding on so tightly to the past, we are letting the future slip away from us?  Could it be that in our resistance to move forward in the world, particularly when it comes to technology, that we are shunning the very thing that would help reconnect the church with the young, disenfranchised believers?  I believe so.

Here's the thing though - at the blazing fast speed at which technology moves forward, a speed that is increasing daily and so far shows no signs of slowing, the more we (the church) hesitate, the more we reflect on the "rightness" of integrating technology into worship or into the way we communicate with the world, the further behind we fall and the larger the ground that we will have to make up.  With each passing moment, we are effectively giving up the opportunity to communicate to young believers that what God has to offer them is more than relevant, that what God has to offer the world can change the world for the better, that the church while it is soundly in the world it is not of the world and for that reason can offer them a needed respite from the world without the need to completely disengage from the communities and relationships they have there.

Does the church need to catch up?  Yes.  Can the church catch up?  Yes, but not if it waits much longer.

5:45 AM | Labels: , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comments  

This is Your Brain on Hope

5:30 PM | Labels: , | 0 Comments  

Giving Thanks for Progress on Equality

Cross Post from vanpress.blogspot.com

Every Thanksgiving, I begin a personal process (that tends to remain completely personal, sharing it with no one) of collecting a mental list of the things for which I am thankful.  I carry this list with me through the Holidays right up until New Year’s Eve.  On New Year’s Eve or so, I find some quite time to reflect on those things with a particular emphasis on the things that are specifically connected with the past year.  For example, this past year Jeanette said, “Yes!” when I asked her to marry me – I will be forever thankful about that, but particularly thankful this year.

Much like the “thanksgiving” of Jeanette saying yes, most of my thanksgivings are fairly personal.  This Thanksgiving though, I am also thankful for something that is both personal and national at the same time.  No matter what side of the political perspective you fall, the election of the first African-American as the President of “the most powerful nation in the world” is a milestone that we see very few of in a given lifetime.  For me it is particularly remarkable to reflect on it and, yes, be thankful about during Thanksgiving in the US.

Galatians 3:38 – “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”  That's the goal, the vision, of heaven on earth - the Kingdom of God come.  It takes seriously the understanding that God created us all equally.  Unfortunately, that has not always been the history of the US - or any other nation for that matter.  

Which brings us back to my thanksgiving reflection on the historical and theological significance of electing Obama President. Supposedly the first Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1621 by the Pilgrims and their Native American neighbors (although there is debate of this).  The picturethat is presented of this is one of harmony and goodwill.  Plymouth Rock, the reported landing place of the first Pilgrims, however has been used as the symbol to point to some less than harmonious (and less than Christian) parts of U.S. history.

Since 1970 a group of Native American have used Plymouth Rock on Thanksgiving as a way to protest the historical treatment of Native Americans in the US - it has become known as "The National Day of Mourning."  Possibly the most famous words uttered about Plymouth Rock were those of Malcolm X, "We didn't land on Plymouth Rock, Plymouth Rock landed on us."  The point is, harmony between the peoples of the US, equality, has not always been our strongest quality even though, biblically, it should be.

The election of President Obama gives me hope that we are slowly leaving that kind of behavior behind in the US.  This isn't about which political party won, it is about a milestone not only in US history but in the lives of those who have been marginalized in one way or the other - and, yes, even in the lives of those who have not.  Paul encouraged Christians toward this type of behavior, toward valuing all people for who they are or as one of my personal heroes put it, judging people not by "the color of there skin, but by the content of their character." Paul (and Dr. King for that matter) was trying to tell us, that freedom, real freedom, comes from recognizing that the God in me is the same as the God in you.

President Kennedy (another of my heroes) said, "Our most basic common link, is that we all inhabit this small planet, we breath the same air, we all cherish our children's future, and we are all mortal." It was that common link, that essential same-ness, that Paul was trying to get us to see.  It is part of what inspired Kennedy to proclaim that, "imposed upon [the US is] the role of leader in freedom's call."  Given that, for we Christians, freedom, real freedom, is recognizing that the God in me is the same as the God in you, it would seem that in the election of Obama we have made another bold step in the direction of being a "leader in freedom's call." Given that real freedom means, "there is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female," we have a distance yet to go.

I am deeply and spiritually grateful this Thanksgiving for the bold statement we have made as a nation.  I hope that we take the charge of Paul, and King, and Kennedy and (in the words of Simone de Beauvoir) insure that the existence of "every human life [is] pure transparent freedom," so that no child ever feels like they are less loved, less cared for or less valuable than any other - so that everyone knows they are important, so that everybody knows they are great.

I am thankful that he was elected, I am hopeful that he will take the words of Jesus to heart and see that in order for us all be great, we each must be a servant, even the President  - a servant of all.  Dr. King put it best in one of my favorite sermons, "The Drum Major Instinct," "And so Jesus gave us the new norm of greatness.  If you want to be important - wonderful.  If you want to be recognized - wonderful.  If you want to be great - wonderful.  But recognize that he who is greatest among you shall be your servant.  That's the new definition of greatness."

I'll conclude this reflection by sharing with you the final words of "The Drum Major Instinct," because if we all could live out a life like Dr. King hoped he would, we would all truly have something for which to be thankful. (Mister President, I hope you are listening somewhere out there):

"If I can help somebody as I pass along,

If I can cheer somebody with a word or song,

If I can show somebody he's traveling wrong,

Then my living will not be in vain.

If I can do my duty as a Christian ought,

If I can bring salvation to a world once wrought,

If I can spread the message as the master taught,

Then my living will not be in vain.

Yes, Jesus, I want to be on your right or your left side, not for any selfish reason. I want to be on your right or your left side, not in terms of some political kingdom or ambition. But I just want to be there in love and in justice and in truth and in commitment to others, so that we can make of this old world a new world."

4:44 PM | Labels: , , , , , , , , , , | 0 Comments  

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