The Changing Society of the Church

The technology with which we live is stunning. Like so many things that we use and work with on a daily basis, the technological marvels we use become commonplace, average, normal, and routine. Usually, it's not until we lose them or they break down that we stop and are amazed by what they do. You take your car for granted until it breaks down and is in the shop for days; you take all the kitchen equipment in stride until your oven or fridge go out and you have to scramble to fix meals or store food; you pick up the clicker and turn on the TV without a thought until that one time that it doesn't come on and you have to spend hours figuring out if the problem is the clicker, the TV, or the Dish (or cable or cable box or dish converter - you get the picture); and we assume the ability to get to the Internet or access the things we have saved on our computer is a natural right - until they break down and you can't get to anything. Such has been the last few weeks for me. No computer. No Internet. No life.

I have two computers - a desktop model and a laptop. Joanie uses the desktop most of the time and I use the laptop all the time. We sit in the living room together with both of us on the computer doing work or finding information or playing. Joanie mentioned we had some problems with the desktop while I was on vacation. After getting back, I tried to fix it but couldn't. No problem, I have the laptop. So, I took my laptop to class and set it up to use in teaching. Suddenly the screen went black and I had no access. Within a few hours, both computers were down experiencing different problems. The PC had a corrupted hard drive and the laptop back light had blown out. The result was I had neither, nor a recent back up of either, and no way to get to the files. If it had not been for a very knowledgeable friend who lives in our complex, I would have been out of luck. He was able to retrieve the files on both units and we purchased a new hard drive for the PC and it is up and running. The laptop will take a little longer, but it should be fine, too. But, I am now in the library at Fuller using one of their computers to do some work and write this blog.

We are learning as a society that what we have taken for granted (cheap gas, ease of travel, soda and snacks on airplanes) is changing rapidly. I have to go to Ohio to preach a camp meeting in a couple of weeks. I won't take any suits or suit jackets. I don't want to pay the extra money for the other piece of luggage that would be required. We are also learning as a church that some things that have been just are not going to continue. Denominational loyalties are non-existent, changes in social attitudes are splitting churches over issues such as homosexuality, and technology and music styles still impact how the church perceives itself and is viewed by the community around it. Here at Fuller, some 50% of the student body, preparing to serve God and the Church in the future, do not attend a local congregation. Things are changing.

Whatever the future holds for the church it will be full of adjustments. Congregations are becoming more multi ethnic in makeup. Whereas Martin Luther King called the 11 o'clock hour on Sunday morning the most segregated hour in American life, the church is finding ways to be more like the neighborhoods in which the serve - black, white, brown, yellow, red, and variations of each. What you may take for granted today, may be different tomorrow. The question is and will be: does the church have anything to say or to contribute to a changing society? I spent yesterday delivering a lecture to students of preaching. It was on multicultural preaching. My friend, Dr. Lisa Lamb, says that the multicultural church is the church of the eschaton - it is the church of the future. The church will be multicultural either here on earth or we will be when we all get to heaven. Maybe we should begin making those adjustments now. After all, what we have come to depend upon and we think is normal may suddenly change, like the breakdown of computers. At that point, you either adjust to the new situation or become irrelevant.