The Church: New & Improved! All Previous Models Discounted!

A major electronics chain in the U.S. has instituted a program. If you buy the latest "new thing", then regret it when the next "new thing" arrives, they will buy back your now-old "new thing" (for a fraction of the price) so you can buy the really "new thing" and retain your title as New Thing Owner. It's great marketing–Americans love the lastest, the newest, the next. We see technology as a ladder, each evolution a breakthrough built on the last. The only trouble is that it's not true. Newer isn't always better (New Coke, anyone?)

A major electronics chain in the U.S. has instituted a program. If you buy the latest "new thing", then regret it when the next "new thing" arrives, they will buy back your now-old "new thing" (for a fraction of the price) so you can buy the really "new thing" and retain your title as New Thing Owner. It's great marketing–Americans love the lastest, the newest, the next. We see technology as a ladder, each evolution a breakthrough built on the last. The only trouble is that it's not true. Newer isn't always better (New Coke, anyone?)

It's understandable we'd feel this way. Innovation is the hallmark of our time. Fast-to-market is a requirement. And just look at our record: It took about 8,000 years to go from 8 mph (camel caravan) to 10 mph (steam engine). One century later, missiles traveled 1800mph. A month ago, my 17-year-old niece's science class successfully performed a lab experiment that won the Nobel Prize three years ago. Most likely, your alarm clock's computer is bigger than the one that landed Apollo 11 on the moon. No wonder we're pretty proud of ourselves.

And the church has adopted the same outlook. We emulate from the overnight-success Megachurch. We latch on to the next wave, the cutting edge program, the breakthrough ministry. We seek the wisdom of the new voice with the new idea.

But wisdom doesn't come quickly, doesn't show up in the cacophany of innovation. Wisdom gravitates to long conversations, to quiet reflection, to experience and thought.

The distraction of cutting-edge pulls our attention away from our own past. We glance back, see nothing flashy, and turn back to the horizon. We don't hear wisdom whispering behind us, borne of eras that studied Ethics rather than I.T., Art rather than Computer Graphics, Philosophy rather than Self-Help. Over the din, it's hard to hear those old conversations, but they're available to join if we want.

Answers to questions we think are new are there, as are questions we haven't thought of yet. While we think we are the apex of all that has ever happened, there are changes coming toward the American Christian church that we've forgotten how to handle: being the minority, living as peculiar people, suffering persecution, spreading the gospel without institutional advantages, meeting needs in an unstable world.

When we take the time to explore the old conversations, the wisdom of century-upon-century's saints, we find worth there.

Yes, our high-tech, enviro-green, modern-cool complexes are amazing. But church architects of old filled the buildings with reminders of biblical truth and, from the shape of the nave to the color of the carpet, Jesus reigned. Our worship bands attract thousands to concerts and fill our heads with memorable choruses. But those who came before have touched millions by filling lyrics with scripture and theological truths. We invest in audio, visual, media and hip pastors who'll bring in an audience. They thought God was the audience and invested their lives in knowing him and serving others. We long for God and go to the Christian mega-mart for a newly-released book. They longed for God and went to the wilderness and to the Word.

Obviously, the modern church isn't all bad, and the historical church wasn't all good. But entering the conversation of the whole church will teach us things we didn't know that we didn't know. Get out of our myopic self-centeredness and explore the church across time and culture. Pick up a Christian classic. Study church history or biographies of those who walked this road before us. Listen to forgotten hymns. Sometimes, old can be an improvement, too.