Thursday, March 19, 2015

THIS GENERATION IS WIRED-TEN OBSERVATIONS

BY STEVE DUNN

Go into any restaurant, waiting room, or public arena.  You will see a common sight.  Young people (actually people of all ages) holding a shiny rectangle of plastic in their hands, a thumb or finger poised above a tiny keyboard.  It's their phone and they are using it for a variety of things, from sending text messages, viewing their Facebook or email accounts, taking and sharing photos--maybe even making a phone call.  And now they may be reading files that are on a PC somewhere but is synced with their telephone.

This is but one example of a truth that has emerged -- in fact, emerged long ago but is only now being noticed by much of the church.  This generation is wired.

This has powerful implications:

1. They can be communicated with in real time (and you might even speak "face to face.").

2. They get their information, particularly the daily news on-line.

3. They carry their Bibles on their phones and through Twitter  can communicate with their preacher while he preaches.

4. People can enter their lives without ever entering their physical space.

5. They can be exposed to a world ideas via Google search.

6. They can watch a live streaming worship service and never go through the door of the church.

7. They can participate in an online Bibles study that occurs whenever they are available.

8. They can text prayers in real time.

9. They are increasingly isolated from significant human contact.

10. This is a kairos time to communicate the Gospel world wide.

How will the church that is uncomfortable with this electronic reality going to continue to connect with the culture around them?

Thursday, March 5, 2015

WE'RE NOT ON WALTON'S MOUNTAIN ANYMORE

BY STEVE DUNN


Churches are notoriously resist to change.  Whether they are watered from the liturgical stream or the pentecostal tributary, churches quickly develop traditions that they embed in stone.  Even a fresh wind of the Spirit can at best bend them for a time, but they anchored by roots of culture and personal preference that make them inward focused.

The inward focus soon leads to irrelevance even in communities where they are known as "First Church."  Except for the most isolated of locations, they are living in a world of constant change; and without an awareness of those changes and an attempt to engage their unchurched neighbors,  they find themselves on a mission field for which they are ill-equipped to connect new generations with a meaningful faith in Jesus Christ. 

This is true of both temperament and technique.  By temperament our churches tend to cultural-despisers instead of counter-cultural lights.  Their message is one of judgment, condemnation,and lament.

Or their techniques are tied a Sunday morning worship service, with worship that looks more like a family reunion than an assembly that clearly worshiping Christ or with sermons that talk about the minutia of doctrinal distinctives instead of the challenge and hope of the Kingdom of God.

We do not live on Walton's Mountain any more.  In fact, few of us who aging church leaders ever lived their either.

The time is come to take a cue from Paul on Mars Hill, whose cultural awareness and discernment gave him a bridge to reach a culture with the eternal gospel of God.

© 2015 by Stephen L Dunn
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