Last evening Sharon and I stayed at Regent for an evening lecture entitled, "Downloading our Spirituality: Why Going to Church Doesn’t Seem Necessary in this Virtual Age." It was a fascinating lecture I would recommend you download (ironic, isn't it?), but one of her main ideas is that we need community. We need people with skin on. We need to relate face-to-face. It is the way we were created in God's image. The Trinity models it. We reflect it. And we need to move away from looking at Scripture as simply the place to get answers and view it, as did the reformers, as the place to encounter the living God.
Following the 50 minute presentation, questions were taken from the audience. A twenty-something went to one microphone, and while the presenter was answering a question from the person at the other microphone, he stood there typing notes on her answer. When she finished answering the question and turned to him for his question, he was unaware of her because he was still typing the answer to the other questioner. She waited patiently for him to look up. When he did, he confessed he was busy typing her answer. He asked his question (a good one, by the way) and as she began to answer, he dropped his eyes to his laptop and proceeded to type her answer instead of remaining engaged with her as a person who was answering his question.
Had I been the presenter I think I would have stopped with my answer and patiently (I'd like to think) explained to him that I would be happy to buy him the MP3 of the lecture if he would simply stop taking notes and listen to the answer in real time from a real person. But instead she soldiered on and gave an excellent answer to his question. He thanked her and sat down.
Maybe its because of my age, and my own inability to multi-task very well, but I think the questioner vividly proved the presenter's point. As a culture we have stopped connecting with real people and simply want to get the top layer of information. As evangelicals we have done the same thing in our churches. We rate the church on the quality of the sermon, not the level at which I was able to encounter God. We don't go to participate, we go to listen (and maybe to watch). We have become passive in our worship instead of active as God intended. We have traded content for relationship.
1 comment:
that would certainly explain why we have so little impact on the world around us. So much of the time we're not even present other than physically. Or we're working for the week end. or we've filled every single moment with things that don't last.
One of the things that I've always enjoyed about Buddhists, ( the real ones, not the ones that claim buddhism to avoid thinking deeply about anything) is the sense of presence I get when I'm around them. They aren't waiting for the next thing to arrive, but they seem to be very happy with the moment and able to appreciate it for the gift it is.
There are many christians like that as well I'm sure but, I think it's a lot easier for us to wander from that state of mind. I don't know if that's because we know God's grace and get lazy with our spiritual disciplines, or if we don't trust God's grace and are busy trying to live up to His standard, or something or things else entirely. But of one thing I am sure, we would do well to slow the pace of our lives down so that we could be fully aware of each moment.
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