Home By Another Way

I’m at my denomination’s General Assembly this week. Every other year, in the HOTTEST PART OF THE SUMMER, Disciples of Christ descend on some unsuspecting town–usually in the Midwest–and share a time of worship, workshops, celebration and visioning. There are business sessions too. So I hear…

Anyway, there’s lots of STUFF going on, every minute of every day. At times, I’ve left my room at 7 in the morning and not gotten back until after midnight. (In a complete state of sensory overload, after which I have to sit in a dark corner for an hour…) But it’s not the ‘stuff’ that most of us come for. It’s the people. The friends from seminary, camp days, other regions and former congregations… We come to be with our people. To hear what our Church is doing in other places, and to be reminded of this calling we all share.

Like most mainline denominations, our big gatherings have seen a sharp decline in attendance lately. This is due, in part, to general decline at the congregational level. But there’s a whole lot more to it than that. Institutions are complex animals, and religious institutions are gnarlier creatures still. There are many layers affecting the ways in which we gather–cost, relevance, and diversity being the most visible and tangible.

Of course, when this many clergy and church leaders come together in one place, we are determined to FIX ALL THE THINGS. To solve all the world’s problems through intentional dialogue over good coffee (or bourbon). We know that actual change happens gradually–sometimes, excruciatingly so–but it does start here. With naming the gaps and believing there’s a way across them.

I’m not going to propose an epic new model that will enliven our future gatherings and save the world from all the problems we didn’t get to this time. But I am going to offer a little parable. In photo form.

Meet… The Message Board.

Ok, so it’s not a sexy graphic. (For those, you have to enter the Exhibit Hall!)

I bet you can’t guess what the Message Board is for… For the posting of messages, you say? Ok, maybe you can guess… Thing is, at Assemblies past–say, 10 or 20 years ago–this board would be PLASTERED with notes. People hoping to catch up with their bff from Junior High camp, or their old seminary roommate, or a former pastor. It would be so covered in post-its and tiny envelopes that, even if there was something with your name on it, you ran a slim chance of actually finding it.

I don’t have to tell you what happened to make that message board look so huge and empty… Cell phones. Twitter. Instagram. Facebook. Technology and social media happened to the message board. And yet, here it still is.

The thing is, the message board is not hurting anybody. Sure, it’s not cute. It doesn’t match the decor. But it is still there for the people who don’t do social media, or for the people whose contact info you lost, or for those who just really prefer the feel of pen to paper. It’s fine. It’s whatever.

But– it’s important to remember that the slow death of the message board does not indicate a diminished level of connection. It just signals that people are connecting in other ways.  The meaningful work of the Church is still happening–at these gatherings and elsewhere–but we have to acknowledge it isn’t happening through all of the same venues that once worked intuitively.

So it’s fine–of course it’s fine–to keep the message board. But what if keeping up the “message board” (i’m moving into metaphor here, stay with me) was preventing us from embracing new ways of connecting. What if our love of the message board led us to say “check your phones at the door, folks. We don’t use social media here, because this is CHURCH and that’s not in the Bible!” What if we demanded that for the expanse of the Assembly, people connect ONLY THROUGH THE MESSAGE board, because clearly, that is what the Lord has ordained since the beginning of time… Or at least since 1954?

We’d say that was absurd. We’d say, the world has changed, and there are better, more efficient and engaging ways of reaching people. We’d say, it’s time to find another way.

Well.

Good things still happen at these gatherings, though they’ve gotten smaller. The message we’re putting on that dated old board is one that the world needs to hear. It’s one that is just as important, just as urgent, just as potentially-world-shaping as it ever was. But if we can’t find some new ways to post it… it’s going to start looking pretty empty.