I bet you are reading this on a screen of some kind. In fact, that’s the only way to read this unless it has been printed out to read. Much of what we read and are exposed to, much of our communication, is done “on screen.” Have you thought about how many hours a day or a week or even a year that you spend in front of a screen? If you include phone, computer, tablet, tv, the figure could get alarming.
Maybe you think I’m going to move on to a rant against technology. Well, not exactly. In fact, we got 7,239 visits to our website in 7 days recently and I think that is great! It’s miraculous, actually. I celebrate the outreach our church (of 60 members) can have because of technology and the internet. But what I will say is that I believe our increasing amount of “screen” time makes church ever more important. To balance screen time, we need real time face time. We need contact – physical, social, relational – with real people with whom have a bond. At church, we come together, face to face, hand to hand, eye to eye, voice to voice, with our sisters and brothers in Christ. We don’t know what that encounter is going to involve, what it may mean, or how we may be affected, until it happens. Church is always a surprise. And we will miss the blessing if we don’t show up; if we confine ourselves to screen time. Our calling is to embody the love of God as Jesus did. It takes our bodies to embody. It involves actually being with other people. And we can’t know ahead of time what the outcome will be. So, in a society captivated by efficiency, outcome, and bottom line, where does going to church fit in? It’s not something that you can readily measure, quantify, chart, or sometimes even explain.
I am for church that is high touch and high tech. But I think we must resist to temptation to focus on the tech as the expense of the touch. Church should be high touch augmented, supported, enhanced, and extended by high tech.
Prayer: As humans we have a hunger for the sacred, the holy, a sense of spirit. This yearning is expressed and fulfilled in relationships with other people. May we invest ourselves in face to face contact creating communities of joy that meet our deepest hungers. May church be a safe, welcoming space in which we encounter love embodied and incarnate. Amen.
Lakewood United Church of Christ 