This past week has been a very fun and exciting week.
It’s also been a week where I’ve been called “silly”, scoffed at, and laughed at by 70 people or so, at the same time and in the same room.
Twice.
It’s because they are ignorant.
And it’s not entirely their fault.
The concept of “online church” is scary (and by no means am I suggesting a definition here… just the concept).
It challenges long-held assumptions about what “church” really is. It challenges classical and “biblical” definitions of the local church and the capital “c” Church. It’s using a medium which was widely held, at one point, as “evil” or if not completely evil, most certainly “bad”.
But reacting in fear without taking the time to understand is dangerous. Well, if anything, it can hurt people’s feelings… like mine (but that’s certainly not the “big” issue).
Now, I could have provided ample evidence and empirical data to convert many of the doubters in those audiences that their concept is limited and their understanding is shallow. That may have worked, but perhaps learning from the past might be a better place to start.
So, let’s start with the Telephone.
Back in March 0f 1876 this article, as shown in the image, came out. This is what the article said [Thanks O'Reilly!], among a number of different claims:
On page 4 of The New York Times, the article begins by describing this new device, currently being called the “Telephone,” and the exploring the possibilities “The Telephone could afford humanity.”
The writer quickly jumps into a description of the device, which “…somewhat resembles a Morse instrument…with an ear-trumpet and a curious collection of miscellaneous machinery.”
As the article continues, we are offered a variety of potential uses for this “instrument,” including the possibility of listening to music or hearing the “cooing voice of a female lecturer,” but as we read on, the writer makes the not-so-obvious point about what people will say about this new technology: “The universal use of the telephone will, of course, be viewed with disapprobation by the sound-producing part of the community, just as the introduction of labor-saving machines was met by the hostility of the laboring classes.”
We are warned that “no man will leave his own study” or “will care to go to Fourteenth street and to spend the evening in a hot and crowded building. In like manner, many persons will prefer to hear lectures and sermons in the comfort and privacy of their own rooms, rather than go to the church or the lecture-room.”
As these warnings continue, we are told that “…the telephone, by bringing music and ministries into every home, will empty the concert-halls and the churches.”
Some pretty hefty claims, huh? Melodramatic perhaps? I especially like the claim that it’ll empty churches. I guess that didn’t really happen, did it?
But let’s remember the context. Let’s remember, or try to understand their feelings about it. It was threatening. It was scary. It was an “unknown”.
They reacted. Over-reacted. Badly. So did the audiences that I was a part of last week. I understand that, and I forgive them. But seriously people, we’ve been through this before! This is not the first nor the last time that technology will threaten the old-guard establishments, practices, and personnel.
Get over it. Let’s have some grace, too, while we’re at it.
Oh, and if you’re a “doubter”… you should read my blog more often.
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