Futuristic, Giant Legos, & The Individual Church

Futuristic Age Already?!

In case you haven’t read this yet, Google has developed a car that drives itself. They’ve driven it 100,000 miles in California, and it has been in one wreck… when it was rear-ended by a human-driven car. Seriously, we are living in a futuristic age. Remember when you would watch the Jetsons and think, “Flying cars and a robot that makes you bacon – that’d be awesome!” Now that is coming true. TRUE! Maybe not the flying cars yet, but I wouldn’t put it past Google to do that too. They’re taking over the world.

Here are some other crazy things that are currently blowing my mind.

• Eyeglasses that guide you with GPS
• Willy Wonka 3-course meal gum becoming a reality
• QR Barcodes that open links on your phone (Firefox extension because it’s cool…)
• Justin Bieber’s nail polish line (Just kidding, but seriously. He sounds like a 10 year old girl)

Any other recent inventions that we need to cover?

Mega Blocks (aka Giant Legos)

I will never buy my children Mega Blocks. Ever. The company is terrible. That was free, now on to the story:

This past week, the marketing department at my company (=me and one other person) built a tradeshow booth out of 10,000 blocks. It was pretty impressive, even though my body hated me the following days. You’d be surprised how sore you can get from using and moving 85 boxes of Mega Blocks.

The final product is below. I’d venture to say we made a bigger impression than the booth with one banner.

Note the mailbox. It was my favorite part. People came by and put their business cards in. We also added fire in the fireplace – but we didn’t get a good picture of that. (And by fire I mean red, orange, and yellow tissue paper. Very realistic.)

The Individual Church

When Taylor and I were in Abilene at ACU, we bounced around from church to church looking for the “perfect” experience. The mega Baptist church had a great pastor, but it was essentially impossible to get involved in different programs. Highland had terrible seats – which, embarrassing as it is, was enough for us to avoid going. Southern Hills had a super repetitive sermon series once that turned us off.

It’s very annoying when you don’t have the whole package. Is it too much to ask for a church that:

1. avoids songs from the 90s (sorry, Twila. And “You are the Words and the Music?” Don’t even get me started…)
2. has a thought-provoking message every week
3. provides comfortable seating – no cushioness church pews or smelly movie theater seats
4. doesn’t use cheesy taglines, e.g. “iGod” or “Mission POSSIBLE”

It is very hard to find a church that has everything you want and more.

On a serious note, what scares me about our constant ability to customize everything is that we automatically take that mindset into our churches. We move from church to church as if we’re trying out different restaurants. We tend to have mindsets that churches exist meet our personal agenda. If they fail an item on our checklist, we’ll just go to the bigger church down the street.

“Well, I don’t want to go to that church anymore, because they don’t have a Knitters United group that meets on Tuesday nights at 7…I mean, how am I supposed to get involved?”

We are slowly losing the ability to worship in the one-room-schoolhouse setting with people of all ages, all walks of life, all nationalities. Especially at larger churches, you can literally find an interest group that pertains to your gender, age, and hobby. You can even go to the service that best fits “your style” – Instrumental? Acapella? Conservative? Conversational? Home Church? We’ve got it all.

It’s awesome that we are getting people plugged in to groups with shared interests and that we are culturally relevant. Sometimes, though, we take for granted the community and oneness that unites us through Christ, regardless of how much we have in common ordinarily. When we can customize our church experience enough that we are only surrounded by those identical to us with the same needs and passions and hobbies and lifestyles, well, that’s a dangerous path to be on. You are in for a surprise when you get to heaven, my friend.

Don’t get me wrong – there is power in being surrounded by those who understand you, struggle with you, rejoice with you, and empathize with you. No doubt about that.

On the other hand, God is pretty stellar at bringing people and groups together in relationships that may look odd to the world. Prime example: Denver Moore & Ron Hall. You can learn an incredible amount from someone completely opposite of you. The catch: you have to be willing to get a little uncomfortable.

Don’t rob yourself of the joy that comes through a multigenerational, multicultural Christian community. Don’t pass up a chance to participate and get involved because you can’t find something custom-tailored to your wants and likes. I promise you – you’ll miss out.