Pastor's Corner

Pastor Jeff’s Notes: Analog in a Digital World.

Ah, for the old days! I tend to think that life was so much simpler when phones had cords, and people had to call you back if you weren’t home. Cars could be worked on the backyard and team sports never practiced on Sundays. I remember when a mistake typing could be corrected with a with a little paint brush, but I usually bought “onion paper” which was slick enough I could erase letters with a rubber eraser and then type the correct letter. Copies were made using carbon copies attached to your original and run into the typewriter.

For some people, we’d rather that our phones are not smart, Alexa is only a cute baby’s name, and cookies are just coming out of the oven. Analog means picture tubes once gave light to our televisions, and streaming required waders and a fishing pole. But the world has moved on. Society is largely digital, fast-paced, confusing and unpredictable. How do we serve Christ and serve the world in His name, with all these challenges and changes? I have seen and heard two Christian approaches: hunker down and adapt, for the sake of the gospel.

To hunker down means the church will dig in and outlast the onslaught of culture wars, value challenges and even the information age. Here are some ways we think when we hunker down: Since our message is timeless, we believe the methods of conveying it need not change either: if it was good enough for our forefathers, it is good enough for us. As Christian’s sabbath day, Sunday is reserved for church and nothing else. Children need to read their bible and act in Christmas pageants, sit through worship by a certain age and respect their elders by not interrupting them, letting them call all the shots and helping them cross the street. Old hymns are better than modern ones and popular music is seen as a threat. The main theme of this kind of church is “survive.”

To adapt means the church will act out of the great commission to “Go and make disciples of all nations,” which means most ministry will take place outside the building. Here are some ways we think when we adapt: Since our message is timeless, we trust that God can speak it in different ways for different applications. The methods of spreading the good news of God’s love change to meet the needs of today and tomorrow. The Christian Sabbath day changed the meaning from rest to celebration, thus the Sunday worship service reflects mainly joy and thanks to God for believers, not a vehicle to draw people into the faith. We bring the faith message with our bibles to the places people live and work and play, and our music reflects the gospel in modern tones. The main theme of this kind of church is “engage the world.”

Serving eight years as superintendent, I have seen both kinds of churches as well as some which were making the transition from hunker to adapt. Where do you think we are as a church? Where is God calling us to be in our theme of living the gospel? Are we analog or digital?

Our Church Council will be working hard to institute changes in 2025 to engage the world more effectively for sake of Christ. We will discern how to adapt our mission and ministries to grow disciples of Christ, and we will focus less on reliving what we did in the past. We will work to align all our ministries with our mission, and this will be reflected in our building use, the focus of our services (outside versus inside) and how decisions get made. We will consolidate efforts so people can spend less time managing the organization and more time empowering people to serve God based on their spiritual gifts. Look for some adaptations coming soon this year, and please don’t hesitate to give input to the members of our Council going into 2025.