A couple of nights ago I participated in one of the great American pastimes - shopping. We traveled five minutes from our hotel to what I understand is the third largest shopping mall in America. And it was big - deceptively big. All the stuff we expect at shopping malls was there - food courts, major department stores (four at least), mall security and teenagers hanging about. The same ubiquitous brands were available -Nike, Apple (the Apple store was eerily similar and packed to its Robina equivalent) and Levi - to name but a few. There were a couple of uniquely available American brands like Victoria Secret (I didn't go in - sorry Sue) and the Cheesecake Shop, where the queue for a table was at least an hour. Must be the Big Bang Theory effect.
Anyway,one of my traveling companions wasn't looking to buy anything, but just to kill some time. He asked at Information where he could find a book store to browse. The answer staggered me; there were none. In the the third largest mall in America there are no book stores. It got me thinking.
People are still reading. People are still buying books. They are just not reading paper versions as much, and if they do, they buy it online. On this trip I preloaded some books on my iPad. My bible is on my iPad as well as my iPhone. The weight of my suitcase is blessedly lower. Technology has changed everything when it comes to books and reading. Books and newspapers still have a thriving future I believe; it's just that the method of delivery has, and will continue to change radically.
Then I started to think about the church. People have always, and will continue to yearn for meaning beyond themselves. People will continue to search for answers to the big questions of life. This fundamental quest reflects the fact that we are created in the image of God, and as such are made for relationship with Him.
The church has the opportunity to shine the light on the answers to people's questions, or to obscure them. We obscure the answers when we wrap the gospel in outmoded, irrelevant and sometime unhelpful forms. Too often the church clings to tradition rather than clinging to its fundamental purpose; to know Christ and make Christ known (see Matthew 28:16-20, Acts 1:8, 1 Pete 2:9-11). Clinging doggedly to unhelpful tradition is like book publishers clinging desperately to outmoded methods of technology - just as people will still read, they will still search for meaning. They will just dismiss the church as a place where there answers can be found.
Jaroslav Pelikan has said that tradition is the living faith of the dead - traditionalism is the dead faith of the living. My prayer is that we will know the difference, because in the end we, the church, do not exist for ourselves but for those who do not yet know Christ. So may we continue to be open to change, not of our message, but the ways we communicate that to a rapidly changing world.
I like that Newlife is 'modern' and 'accessible' via Twitter, facebook and social media. I have the app on my iphone. I like that we need to remember where we have come from, and that we can adapt to the future to survive.
Posted by: Leeann | August 13, 2012 at 08:29 PM