Gang,
Immediately below is a poorly formatted copy of the April 1, 2016 eNews.
I had hoped to comment on it on the blog but lacked the time early on. If I entered my comments today, the current issue would be replaced by the next one before my comment could be approved--if it would even have been approved--for publication on the blog.
Please struggle through the poor formatting. Lance, again, has composed a potent challenge for our body. Following my copy of the text of the eNews I make a few comments that I feel strongly about.
Please read them and feel free to respond on or off the blog.
bill
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Boomboxes and iPods
April 1, 2016
Sometimes it’s the ordinary things that help us in seeing the big picture. I was in the shower last
Saturday morning and was somewhat surprised by the music that was blaring through the bathroom
wall from my daughter Molly’s room. She had cranked up an old CD and was singing along and
thumping around her room (either dancing or bouncing off the walls – or maybe a combination of both).
My immediate reaction was to sympathize with my parents who often had to ask or demand that I “turn down that racket." Then it hit me with full force: this is so odd to hear someone else’s music.
I grew up during the advent of the “boombox.” The bigger the
boombox, the better. The music had to be loud. The boombox was
portable and it wasn’t uncommon to see people walking about,
boombox on shoulder with music blaring for everyone to hear. This
was also the era when stereos with large speakers were the norm.
It had to be bigger and louder. It was fun to “crank the dial to
eleven.” This probably explains why I have a hard time hearing
today.
Hearing the sound pouring the wall last Saturday morning
reminded me of how much things have changed since I was a kid.
While my parents had to occasionally ask me to “turn down the
racket,” I assume that my struggle with my own children will be
more along the lines of “take off your headphones” or “take out
your ear buds.”
Music (and all media) is much more personalized today. You don’t
see many boomboxes or big speakers, but you do see lots of ear
buds and Beats by Dre headphones. While my generation might
have blasted their music for everyone to hear, whether anyone
wanted to hear it or not; today we see something very different. Headphones and ear buds are
everywhere. Whether music, podcasts, movies or television shows, it’s become the norm to enjoy
these artistic expressions in the privacy of one’s own earphones via some form of portable technology.
Imagine the looks I might get today if I decided to take a stroll down Main Street with a boombox
blaring on my shoulder (this is the kind of thing I could see my friend, pastor George Jensen, doing for an April Fools’ Day joke)!
Now we can debate whether this is good or bad, but that’s really not my point. I don’t see many
boomboxes these days and I doubt they’re going to make a comeback anytime soon.
So what’s my point to all this besides rambling down memory lane? The world of the boombox was
different than our present iPod world. You had to go to the store to buy a cassette or CD for your
boombox. You had to use an insane amount of DD batteries or use a power cord to keep the thing
playing. Today’s world is different. You don’t have to go to a physical
“store” to buy music, you just download it. Your electronic device of
choice not only plays music, but it can do lots of other things as well.
It’s not necessarily better or worse, but it is different!
Is our approach to ministry perfectly designed for boomboxes in a world
filled with iPods? People are asking different questions today than they
did in previous generations, are we willing to answer those questions or
just simply offer the answers we’ve been prepared to answer? People
are interacting with information and with others in different ways than
they did in the past: are we willing to adapt or will we keep offering up
the same old, same old because we’ve always done it this way or
because it’s comfortable for us.
I don’t want to imply that this is easy or even that I’ve somehow figured
it all out. It’s not easy and I certainly struggle to know how to respond to
some of the challenges that we’re seeing in our world, but I’m
convinced that we’re going to have to take a different approach if we
want to bear spiritual fruit.
What needs to change in our approach to ministry in light of the changing context we find ourselves in?
I’d be interested to hear your thoughts and ideas on this.
Have a great weekend (in light of my reflections this past week, I plan to retreat to the basement and
show my kids how to crank dad’s old stereo up to 11 – Brenda’s away and this is what happens when
I’m left unsupervised). Let’s keep stretching to understand what Jesus is doing in this world of His and how He wants us to join Him in that work!
Christ’s Peace,
Lance
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I have three comments to contribute to the conversation. The first two are 40,000 foot comments. The third, which I have considered not entering but will, is sea level and connects to what we here are doing on the most intimate level. It is for that reason I considered not entering it. In the end, I decided that it raises a truth worth considering.
1. Using Lance's idea, I believe that the most important reason for the decline of the CGGC is that, if a pastor adopts the iPod, as soon as a sixtysomething or seventysomething Church Board member who prefers 33 1/3 LPs on vinyl played on a stereo consul becomes upset and complains to the Conference, (at least in my Conference) Conference leaders will say, "No problem Deacon Jones, we'll remove your iPod pastor and find you one who still play vinyl on your stereo consul.
Conference leadership has, in all of my four decades in the CGGC, never even one time, made a risky decision to stand up for truth and, most importantly, for the people who believe what they are saying and begin to put it into practice.
That's why our congregations are still playing vinyl LPs vinyl on stereo consuls. And it's why we will continue to be a couple of generations behind the times.
Repenting of this will be hard for our mountaintoppers to do but we will never put Lance's wisdom into practice until they practice repentance in this way.
2. More important than the device we use is the music we listen to.
In the CGGC we have given up life lived according to the message preached and modeled by Jesus and His early followers for something cheaper and faddish.
Using Lance's idea, in Boomer-speak, we have given up Abbey Road to groove on The Best of the 1910 Fruitgum Company: Simon Says.
Even if our Conference leaders would stand up for the iPod and sacrificially defend and stand up for the men and women who use it, if they don't return to unashamed obedience to the Way Jesus taught and lived, we are forever lost.
We must all repent of the bubble gum Gospel that passes for truth in the CGGC today.
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3. And, very personally, as profoundly as I am challenged by what Lance has written, from firsthand experience, I, honestly, don't believe he means it enough to actually live it.
Here's why: Lance has never even sniffed what we are doing here in our small community of gatherings.
If he was committed to the iPod, he would have at least taken what we are doing seriously enough to briefly investigate it. And, he hasn't done that, even for one nanosecond.
Certainly, upon knowing what we do, and why and how we do it, Lance might conclude that there is nothing here for him and the rest of the body.
In fact, my guess is that, if Lance did take a look at the iPod we have developed, he would conclude that there is little, if anything, of value here.
But, the real life truth is that, as far as we are concerned, Lance has never left the highest peak of the CGGC mountain since he was elevated to it.
I, personally, know of nothing that leads me to conclude that Lance actually practices his very challenging thinking.
Having said that, I love him as much as I ever have.
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