Well, they have made the newspaper smaller again. My local paper continues to get smaller and smaller. The pages are smaller, the sections are smaller, everything is smaller. I am afraid it will all be gone very soon.
This is a real problem for me because a newspaper is a habit with me. I love to sit and read a newspaper in the morning. I enjoy it with breakfast or just on a break. But, this is going away, too, I suppose.
Actually, I have come to the stage where I barely read the newspaper at all. I read the front section (to some degree) and flip through the "Metro" section. I go through the sports pretty quickly, looking for anything I might be interested in. Ultimately, I end up with the comics (very important) and the sudoku (even more important).
Soon, it will all be electronic. I do not read the newspaper for news, because I have already gotten the news online. I do not need it for comics (I can read those online). But I want it anyway. It is comfortable. It is normal. It is the way I do things. But it makes no sense.
Really, it does not make any sense. I have read more recent news before I leave the house in the morning than any I can find in the newspaper. The process of producing a paper is expensive and wasteful of natural resources. The costs go up while the product becomes less and less useful and interesting. Oh, well. I'll cling to it while I may.
How much of your Christian life is like this? You keep doing things that make no sense just because you are used to them. Churches are filled with things that we do only because we are used to them. Having preached in a lot of churches, they are almost all the same. The order of service is the same (songs, greeting, songs, prayer, offering, "special music," sermon, invitation). The time is the same. The Sunday Schools are the same. Even so-called "contemporary churches" tend to have the exact same pattern, just using different songs. Oh, sure, we can move the offering until after the sermon or some such little thing, but it is never a real change.
The church routine is, for many of us, like my newspaper routine. We are comfortable this way. It is our way and feels good, even if it really doesn't make much sense anymore. Maybe it is time to give up my newspaper, as well as my Sunday routine. Perhaps my time in the morning could be better spent, just as, perhaps, our time in church could be better spent.
Mark Twain (through Pudd'nhead Wilson) had it right long ago: "Habit is habit and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time." The gradual reduction of the newspaper is, gradually, coaxing me out of my newspaper habit.
What will coax us out of our desire to make church "comfortable" rather than a living event?
This is a real problem for me because a newspaper is a habit with me. I love to sit and read a newspaper in the morning. I enjoy it with breakfast or just on a break. But, this is going away, too, I suppose.
Actually, I have come to the stage where I barely read the newspaper at all. I read the front section (to some degree) and flip through the "Metro" section. I go through the sports pretty quickly, looking for anything I might be interested in. Ultimately, I end up with the comics (very important) and the sudoku (even more important).
Soon, it will all be electronic. I do not read the newspaper for news, because I have already gotten the news online. I do not need it for comics (I can read those online). But I want it anyway. It is comfortable. It is normal. It is the way I do things. But it makes no sense.
Really, it does not make any sense. I have read more recent news before I leave the house in the morning than any I can find in the newspaper. The process of producing a paper is expensive and wasteful of natural resources. The costs go up while the product becomes less and less useful and interesting. Oh, well. I'll cling to it while I may.
How much of your Christian life is like this? You keep doing things that make no sense just because you are used to them. Churches are filled with things that we do only because we are used to them. Having preached in a lot of churches, they are almost all the same. The order of service is the same (songs, greeting, songs, prayer, offering, "special music," sermon, invitation). The time is the same. The Sunday Schools are the same. Even so-called "contemporary churches" tend to have the exact same pattern, just using different songs. Oh, sure, we can move the offering until after the sermon or some such little thing, but it is never a real change.
The church routine is, for many of us, like my newspaper routine. We are comfortable this way. It is our way and feels good, even if it really doesn't make much sense anymore. Maybe it is time to give up my newspaper, as well as my Sunday routine. Perhaps my time in the morning could be better spent, just as, perhaps, our time in church could be better spent.
Mark Twain (through Pudd'nhead Wilson) had it right long ago: "Habit is habit and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time." The gradual reduction of the newspaper is, gradually, coaxing me out of my newspaper habit.
What will coax us out of our desire to make church "comfortable" rather than a living event?