Recently, I listened to a sermon given by Steve DeNeff, Pastor at College Wesleyan. In his message, he told the story of his family’s plight to move his father from his beloved flip phone to a new iPhone. As I listened to the saga of the phones I began to think about the situation we are in right now. My application of the story is different than his, and I am sure I am taking some creative license with how things actually were described, but here goes.
The father had an old flip phone. You remember those things, don’t you? They were amazing when they came out. You could fold your phone in half. They were compact and convenient. Texting on them was a near impossibility for anyone over the age of fifteen. But they did well what they were made to do: make and receive calls. Over time, though, the father’s old flip phone didn’t quite work like it used to. It had become broken, been dropped one too many times, and it was difficult for him to hear people talking to him. So the family got together and made a decision. It was time for dad to get an upgrade. Like a parent offering candy to convince a child to change its diaper, they offered to him a new iPhone with all the features to be had with this new glorious technology. But dad, was not having any of it. His old flip phone was familiar and did, at least as far as he was concerned, what he needed to do. It made and received calls, even if he couldn’t hear everyone correctly. Of course, the iPhone could do all that and more. Still it was a hard sell to convince him to make the change. It seemed the only hope for the conversion would come if the flip phone finally quit working entirely.
What does this have to do with our current situation in the church? What if this time out of our buildings, unable to “do church” like we are used to, has actually given to us a new phone? What if, rather than looking to go back to our old flip phone, we have instead been given the chance to (even forced to), step into a new reality, a reality that is better than what we had before? As we dream of going back to the way things were, have we not forgotten the old phone was not particularly working that well? Engagement was down. Attendance was down. Connection was down.
Around the world, new models of church ministry and life have been exploding. Some call them fresh expressions. But really they have a million different names and formats. For many of us, we have seen these new expressions of church and saw them as a fringe. Much like how we looked sideways at those original iPhone users while we happily put our flip phones in our pocket. Almost overnight, however, we have woken up to a world where, out of our concern and love for our neighbor, we no longer can use our facilities. We cannot do what we used to do in the ways that were familiar to us. Out of seemingly nowhere new ways of being in community have suddenly become the mainstream. The possibilities that are before us are great. We have the possibility to engage more. To live in community more. To worship in different times and places. This time of social distancing has given to us a great gift.
I know it may not feel like a gift, but bear with me while I tell one more cell phone story. I remember when I got my first cell phone. I was working in a job doing technical and computer training at the time. I was excited to have make use of my first phone. My excitement quickly went away. I found it frustrating, maddening, confusing, and nearly impossible to make work. I came extremely close to giving up on ever having a cellphone. Besides, I still was not sure these things were ever going to go mainstream. They were not just not as reliable as our landlines. What I wanted to do was throw it out the window to be smashed in the street by the first passing car. What I did was persist through the frustration and learned to make and receive calls. Now, I even have an iPhone and love the many things it can do.
Right now, the new reality doesn’t feel like anything better than what we had before. It is frustrating. It seems broken and nearly unusable. I get it. We had to cancel our service at 10:00 am yesterday because the technology was down. And many of us are still not sure if these new expressions are ever going to become mainstream anyway.
As we struggle together in this new reality, with new tools and methods that seem so confusing and unfamiliar, remember we can look at what has been taken from us or we can look to what has been given to us and the possibilities. Where are we looking?
Blessings,
Stephen