Okay, so change became a buzz word over the past two and a half years. But before it was a buzz word and still for those happy with the way things are in life, change was a dirty word. For some, it was almost the equivalent of a four-letter word (even though it has six).
But change, as the cliche often notes, is the only constant in our lives.
And lately I’ve begun to think a bit about the rate of change (or flux for those of us who are geeks). Much of this comes out of a conversation I had with my brother regarding cell phones. Mostly how different the phones we have now are from those we had two years ago and how different those phones were from those we had nine years ago (or I had nine years ago). But also how quickly it’s changing. Cell phones, in a race for the edge in the market, are bringing out new phone after new phone. It seems like every month or so companies are releasing newer, slicker, faster, smaller phones. And that rate is a drastic difference from the rate at which they were released even three years ago. Not to mention when my mom first got a cell phone fifteen or sixteen years ago (back when they were bricks… almost literally. But I digress).
So I’ve begun to think about this with relationship to the church (because we always get here right?). If my generation and especially those who come after me are used to the rate of change in life being at a dizzying speed, if we’re used to a new cell phone every month or having the size of notebooks become so small we change the name to netbooks, then what happens when they/we enter the church and find change happens at a snail’s pace?
And really, I suppose my question is what happens in congregations where the average age is below 35? Are these congregations more likely to change at a quicker pace? Or will that become true in the future? Will change be quicker as our generation ages? Or will the change always be slow the change? Or will those used to quick change become so frutstrated with the pace and leave before it ever speeds up?
I’m curious to see what others think…
