Welcome to our new website. I hope you’ll enjoy it. Below is the first post in my new blog; a venue where I’ll share some thoughts about different aspects of our faith life with the online community. If you’re new in Oslo, stop by and see us “offline”. Alright, here we go…
I remarked to a friend recently that 25 years into ordained ministry, I’m feeling like I’m a dinosaur. Things change…fast. And it is not enough today to simply keep up with new ideas in theology or exegetical studies or new developments in biblical archeology. I’m behind in some of the other stuff, and I know it.
That being said, this is a phenomenally interesting time to be a pastor. While the central questions in our lives may not change much – central questions which the church addresses with the gospel – so much else in our lives changes, regularly and rapidly. The ways we construct our understanding of the world around us and engage it – ideas like modernism, post-modernism and post-secularism – change such that the three ‘generations’ can be found (or not found which may be more the point) sitting next to one another in the pew. The large social movements like globalization, massive immigration and the rise (again) of Nationalism create conditions and debate which affect our daily life; and especially the technology which is ubiquitous in our lives today. A hundred times a day I use, almost unthinkingly technology which existed only in fiction writers imaginations when I was a kid. To give you an example: I bought my first desktop computer in 1989, when I was 29 years old. A brand new Macintosh SE/30 with a massive 40 MB hard drive and 4 MB’s of RAM. Wow. Today the phone in my pocket is faster, more powerful, has more capability and over a 1000 times more memory. This kind of comparison has become old hat for many people, but I confess I still feel a bit of awe at the changes in technology that have happened during my lifetime.
Part of the advancement in technology is today seen in the social media phenomenon. Being present in social media in any significant way is a relatively new thing for this congregation; even newer for me. But the church has historically always engaged the changes in technology. New building techniques and engineering innovations were driven by the demands of larger and grander worship spaces. The demands of large worship spaces led to developments in musical forms and instruments. The development of pipe organs relates to advancements in metallurgy and (oddly) fluid mechanics. And close to my heart, there’s a well-reasoned argument to be made that without the proliferation of printing presses using Gutenberg’s innovative movable, reusable type, Luther’s reforming ideas would never have moved far beyond the confines of Wittenberg. Instead within months they had spread around Europe.
As a congregation we are taking forays into the digital world. It is only right to do so. It is where increasingly significant parts of our lives are lived, it is a tool which is at our disposal, and it is here to stay (and change!). It is where the church needs to be. Much of that is for another day though. Today I confess I am thinking mostly of myself. What does this new digital age mean for my dinosaur self? I think there are two possible ways to respond to the changing landscape of ministry and the world we live in. The first is to resist, reject, complain and yell a lot.
Or you can seize the opportunity of the moment and ADAPT! This is what the church has done over the ages when it has been most faithful, not to its own traditions, ideas and agenda, but to the mission it has been given.
Here’s hoping you can teach old dinosaurs new tricks.
Pax,
Pastor Tim Stewart