The Technology of Change...

It does not take more than a few seconds to search for articles and videos (click here for a very informative video) on change and technology. You can find churches with names that capitalize on the rapidly evolving landscape of technology (epichurch, relevant church, etc.). Even more, you can find churches whose worship is shaped by and dependent upon this very technological change (video, twitter, industrial architecture, instrumentation, communication, etc...).

The change is dizzying -- not just to an old fogy like me but to young people as well. The rapid pace of change is felt beyond technology into fashion and family, work and worship, recreation and resources. It is nearly impossible to keep up with all the change. I know personally of people who fear that rest time will leave them behind as change continues while our minds and bodies sleep. What will I miss if I am not tuned in to the internet, tweeting, facebooking, etc... For example, I learned of the status of a person having surgery through her facebook page postings done on her I-phone in pre op, recovery and her room following the surgery...

But all this change can leave people vulnerable in ways that past generations could not imagine. Because of the rapid pace of this change and its immediate impact upon people (for good or for ill), we are all tossed about on this sea of change without much control about where things are headed and without much time to reflect upon where things have been. Almost instinctively, many young folks have sought to balance this rapidly changing landscape with an anchor in worship forms that draw upon the rich treasures of the past -- things like chanting, incense, elaborate ceremony and ritual, and silence.

I do not think this is a fad. I think that it is a cry for stability and security in a world with little of either. Their faith is finding a home in the yesterdays that so much of Christianity has forgotten and so many Christians had written off as old fashioned or irrelevant.

But for those who rush to add Evening Prayer with incense to the list of services offered at the local Baptist, non-denominational, or emergent church, I suggest caution here. These folks are sophisticated enough to know when something is not authentic -- when things are being done without meaning or connection to what is believed and taught.

For those in liturgical traditions like Lutherans, it is a call for us to stop trying to be techno churches with generic worship forms driven by the latest rage and to start being true to who we say we are in our Confessions. Not because it is in style but because it is authentically who we are. In the face of such rapid change, it is time for us to wake up and smell the roses. When we act like half-baked Baptists, non-denominationals, and emergent whatevers, that is exactly what we are half-baked wannabes sort of like the Platte River in Nebraska (where I come from) -- a mile wide but only an inch deep.

I believe that this techno moment of rapid change is a kick in the pants to us as Lutheran Christians -- be who you are. Can you hear the voice of Obi-wan Kenobe saying to Luke "Trust the force?" You should. Trust in who you are. Word and Sacrament people... Law and Gospel people... Creedal and Confessional people... Ritual and ceremonial people... Catholic and evangelical people... For too darn long we have felt the pressure and sought to be something foreign to us in order to be missional, to embrace a new paradigm, to be transformational... It ain't working. We are even more adrift, divided, and confused. We cannot keep up with all the new things some are doing. BUT... we don't have to...

All we need to be concerned about is being faithful to the Word and Sacraments, to the Law and Gospel proclamation of the Word, to the Evangelical and Catholic identity of our confession and history, and God will bless us. Granted we need to connect with people, welcome the stranger, incorporate the newbie into our astonishingly rich liturgical life, and assimilate people into the family of faith and community of Christ which is the Church... we need people seek out the folks around them, who like them are dizzied by the rapid pace of change and desperately seeking an anchor for their faith and life... we need Pastors comfortable as apologists for the faith in living rooms and coffee houses as well as liturgists within the house of God...

Lets be practical. In my home town here of 130,000 people there are a ton of churches doing the techno, cutting edge, happy clappy, with it style of Christian worship and only 2-3 congregations sticking with the liturgy. Those sticking with the liturgy are not declining. We have people who come here for the first time and return -- why, they cannot explain, but they have to be back, to sit in the pew, to see what is happening, to hear the Word of the Lord talking about sin and forgiveness, death and life, and to witness the mystery of the meal where heaven's food becomes our earthly eats... and still they come... and they will continue... not because of me but because of the Word and Sacraments which do God's bidding and return to Him with the fruits of their gracious work...

I think it is time for Lutherans to put away the Halloween costumes that mask our identity in order to look like the latest in thing and to be content with who we are... Remember the wise old saying, "the church that marries the spirit of the age will be a widow in the next generation..." We can try all the face lifting techniques available but how many times will we change before we will not remember who we really are?