Etch A Sketch Church, iPad World Part 3

At a recent meeting of folks from all over the country, the vast majority of which were over age 50 and a good number over 60, I noticed that many of us opened iPads as the meeting began. Great lamentation, confused whimpers and desperate cries for help arose around the room as the screens came to life:

"How do I save a document?" "I know I downloaded the files, but I can't find them!" "Why does the screen keep changing direction?" "Ach! My notes just disappeared!" "How do I zoom in on that chart?" "Where the heck do I find the wi-fi settings?" "For Pete's sake! I should have brought my old laptop."

The masses among them had a strong craving; and the church folk also wept again, and said, “If only we had our Etch A Sketch! We remember the fish we used to draw so simply, the houses, the trains, the stick people; but now our fingers are confused, and there is nothing at all but this iPad to look at.” [Numbers11:4-6, paraphrased, of course]

Change is difficult. When we know we need it, when we like things the way they are, when we thought we wanted it, when we know we don't want it, when it (whatever "it" is) just doesn't work anymore…in nearly every circumstance, change is difficult. This is as true for congregations and synods as it is for individuals and families.

Change is difficult because we can see that there is goodness in the way things are, or because life is comfortable and familiar and walking into the fog of an uncertain future is frightening, or adopting new habits can be exhausting and discouraging, or because __________________________ (fill in the blank with your own murmuring lament).

            This sort of lament can also arise from a sense of loss and grief. This is natural. It’s appropriate, even necessary, as we learn to let go of what has been good and helpful for us in the past in order to welcome what will be meaningful, faithful and good now and into the future.

We need to create spaces in our life together where we can share the struggle, the pain, the loss involved with being reborn as a 21^st Century church. Psalms, like Psalm 89, when read, discussed and prayed together can help create the desperately needed space among us where we can let loose our lament: “Lord, where is your steadfast love of old?”

The good news is that right there, in such gatherings, as with mourning Mary in the garden that first Easter morning, the risen Jesus will meet us in our murmuring to comfort us with his promising presence and lead us into new life [John 20:11-18].

O God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. [Evangelical Lutheran Worship, “Morning Prayer”]

Itsy bitsy disclaimer: The Etch A Sketch metaphor, in tandem with the iPad metaphor, is intended to be a way to engage imagination around what it means to be the people of God in our current context. I am aware of the unfortunate way in which "Etch A Sketch" was used briefly in media coverage of the presidential political campaign. I intend no political reference whatsoever by the use of this image in the context of this conversation. If the image itself proves less than useful, I trust that folks will use whatever images and metaphors are more helpful for them to continue to engage the very important conversation about how God's people can most faithfully, creatively and effectively participate in God's mission in the world today. In fact, please share those images and metaphors here!

Etch A Sketch Church, Part Two

Are we an Etch A Sketch church in an iPad World?

I am grateful for the creative and energetic ways folks have engaged this question, both online and in person. Every person who responded so far has done so with a “Yes.” Some form of lament or critique has accompanied some of those yeses. Other folks have expressed at least some affirmation for an Etch A Sketch church. Everyone has agreed, however, that to simply be an Etch A Sketch church in an iPad world does not make room for the fullness of the gospel to be known and lived in our current North American context.

Here are some of the fascinating contrasts, insights, and metaphoric reflections that have emerged so far from this conversation:

Etch A Sketch Church

relates primarily to itself and its own inner system

limited capacity to communicate and amuse

nostalgic

one function

reductive

incarnational

focused attention

iPad World

 intimately and mutually connected to diverse and far-flung “others”

wide-ranging and ever-expanding ability to communicate and amuse

future-focused

multi-functional

expansive

digital/virtual

easily distracted

What do you think? Do these insights ring true with you in the context of your local mission center or congregation? And, if we are, indeed, an Etch A Sketch church in an iPad world, what does this mean for the ways we live together as the body of Christ and how we engage the world? Etch A Sketch Church, Part Three will begin to explore this in concrete and practical ways. In the meantime, the conversation will continue in person and online as we seek, together, to be faithful servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries. Please add your perspective to the mix!

(Thanks to the following folks, who responded via Facebook, Twitter or this blog and whose insights are incorporated above: Lisa Dahill, Karol Gafkjen, John Hickey, Larry Isbell, Dan Kreutzer, Steve Stewart, Rebecca Suchomel, Christine Wulff.)

 

Etch A Sketch Church in an iPad World

Sitting in a deli working on a sermon over lunch recently, I noticed an eight or nine year old boy looking for a seat. Carefully cradled under his arm was a half-inch thick red-framed rectangular screen a little smaller than a sheet of paper. “Cool,” I thought. “He’s got an Etch A Sketch to keep him busy while he waits for lunch to arrive.” As he neared, I realized there were no telltale white knobs and the red frame was just rubberized protection for his iPad.

Of course, my initial interpretation of what the boy carried betrayed my own generational habitat and reminded me of the hours I spent turning those beloved white knobs when I was his age. Glancing at the iPad next to my lunch plate I was caught up in a swirl of nostalgia and wonder at how things have changed.

Then, rising from the reflective eddy came a question: Are we an Etch A Sketch church in an iPad world?

It is easy to hear this as an either/or question laden with value judgments resulting in a division of the household of faith into something like “Etchers” and “Padders.” That’s not how I hear it. Etch A Sketch and iPad are very different means of creative expression and engagement with the world. Placing them alongside one another they become metaphors for the contemporary church’s creative expression of the gospel and its engagement with the world for the sake of that gospel. Such metaphors can lead us into fruitful discernment and effective engagement with God’s mission of healing and hope in the world today and into the future. In fact, this sort of playful reflection and conversation might assist us in living into this new day like the early apostles did in their new day. (Now would be a good time to read Acts 10-15 if you haven’t lately.)

For example, I am struck with the self-contained nature of the Etch A Sketch in comparison to the iPad. A person can create beautiful images by twisting those white knobs with care and precision guided by his or her creative vision. But the Etch A Sketch has no built-in interaction with or input from outside the etcher’s immediate local context. An iPad, by nature, penetrates boundaries to provide multi-directional engagement with the world. It is, by default, connected to and welcoming of interaction, resources, insight and input from an almost infinite number of sources far beyond the user’s immediate context. While we can come up with some pretty creative mission and ministry by turning the knobs of the self-contained resources right at hand, might the church, including your congregation, benefit from more immediate, intuitive and multi-directional connection with people, resources, and perspectives from well-beyond the usual red-rimmed boundaries we tend to work within?

Are we an Etch A Sketch church in an iPad world?

Let’s talk about this. Post a comment here. You can also email me, send me a note by mail, chat with me when I visit your congregation or you catch me at Starbucks. Let’s use this metaphor to help each other find faithful and effective ways to follow Jesus into this 21^st century world. In mid-September I will share more of my thoughts about this and respond to some of yours as well.

Vocational Conflict

Our son, Nathan, graduates high school this June. In fact, his graduation ceremony is the morning of Saturday, June 9 in Indianapolis…when I am supposed to be leading the last day of the 2012 Indiana-Kentucky Synod Assembly in Covington, KY.

Do you ever find yourself in this sort of vocational conflict?

Interpreting scripture, Martin Luther spilled a good deal of ink on the concept of vocation. As baptized people, marked with the cross of Christ and sealed with the Holy Spirit, our central and primary vocation – or calling – is to shine the light of Christ in the world: “Let your light so shine before others that they see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” Other vocations, or “callings,” spring from and are means by which we express this central calling: parent, child, student, spouse, sibling, worker, friend, steward, activist, caregiver, diaconal minister, bishop…

In fact, one theologian has said that, “Seen through the lens of vocation, all human work becomes a means to participate in God’s creating and sustaining activity on earth…Luther is fond of saying that one’s own roles and relationships surely give one more than enough God-pleasing work to do without having to look for more.”[1]

Yes, indeed, there is more than enough work to do! We know that well. We are sometimes overwhelmed at our more than enough “callings” to shine the light of Christ. And, sometimes those more than enough callings conflict with one another, forcing us to make a decision about which one to give priority at any given moment. In some ways that is the dilemma of our often over-busy lives. How do we balance all these vocations, these callings?

We pray. We weigh the various aspects of each situation and related consequences. We seek the counsel of others. We tend to the primary relationships God has entrusted to us. And then we take a leap. We “sin boldly” by following the leading of God’s Spirit to privilege, at least for the moment, one vocation over another in service to the one overarching calling, and we entrust ourselves and our decisions to God’s amazing, forgiving, transforming grace.

So this year, leadership of the last few hours of the Synod Assembly will be in the very capable and generous hands of our Synod Vice President and others. That Saturday morning, I will rise early to drive back to Indianapolis just in time to sidle up next to my wife, Janet, and daughter, Kira, to beam with parental pride while Nathan strides across the dais into his future.

May God grant us all continued grace with ourselves and with one another as we tend all of our more than enough vocations.

Bishop Bill Gafkjen

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[1] Kathryn Kleinhaus, “The Work of a Christian: Vocation in Lutheran Perspective,” Word and World, Volume 25, Number 4, Fall 2005 (download at http://www.elca.org/Growing-In-Faith/Vocation/Word-and-Service.aspx)

Think Creatively

[The mission territory that I serve as bishop is about to embark on a re-visioning process called "New Vision for a New Day: Listen deeply. Think creatively. Act boldly." This piece is a brief reflection on the second aspect of that process.]

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen

[Ephesians 3:14-21, NRSV]

From the very beginning of scripture to its ending, God engages in the sometimes irritating habit of calling people to think creatively. Over and over again, God’s people seem to limit their vision and, consequently, their creative energies, to the borderline where their own limitations, frailties and failings meet the threats, challenges, and impositions of life.

To weary people on the edge of a promised land fraught with well-armed giants, God says, “Go ahead; take it.”

      To people languishing in exile, God entreats, “Do not remember the things of old…I am about to do a new thing!”

      God in Christ, no longer bound by doors locked tight by fear, appears to dispirited disciples whispering peace and proclaiming, “Fling wide the doors! I am sending you just like the Father sent me.”

      In a multitude of languages, God’s Spirit permeates the people on Pentecost, calling them to dream new dreams.

      God calls to Peter, bound as he is by careful adherence to tradition, to stretch beyond the boundaries and borders at the very outer edge of his vision.

      The truth is, fear binds and faith frees. Or, more accurately, when all we see are the immense challenges in the light of our own frailties and failings we often become fearful, paralyzed, and held captive to our own imagination and to what we already know. On the other hand, trust in God’s redeeming activity in the world, combined with trust in God’s unfailing love and care for us and for the world, offers freedom to let go of what we already know and to reach beyond our own limited vision, well-worn pathways, and daunting challenges to receive with open hands God’s creative, life-giving future.

       Next time you are in a planning session at church, or trying to imagine your way through a difficult time at home, or working with a community committee on some new project, take a moment to consider the breadth and length and height and depth of God’s amazing grace and then let your imagination run wild and free into God’s imaginative future.

Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen