October 8, 2012

My Essentials: iPhone & Church?

I use my iPhone a lot: to take notes, for directions, to record interviews, to keep track of my calendar, communicate with friends and family, take pictures, and, of course, to Tweet. It seems like an essential part of my life (whether or not that’s a good thing is another question), though I did just fine without it up until a few years ago.

Technology has a way of creating a demand for itself. I may have wished I had a map with me all the time when I first moved to New York, or occasionally wished I had a portable phone before I got my cell phone in college, but I didn’t give it much thought.

I think the church can learn from the way the iPhone and other technology meet a need we didn’t know was there. There was a time during which no one needed to be convinced that they should go to church. It was something everyone did and felt was good for them. No one would have thought to question that they needed to go to church.

These days, it is not obvious to many people that the church is necessary or can offer them anything they need. It’s more socially acceptable not to go to church, and many people believe they can be “spiritual” without being involved in a religious community.

The church is in the position of having to make a case of itself, to demonstrate that people actually do need what it has to offer—community, love, forgiveness, and for many, a sense of hope and peace. I don’t mean simply that we need to evangelize, but we also need to demonstrate that our communities, our liturgy and music, will make life better. And not just in the sense of some future salvation, but now, in the midst of our often baffling lives

We should not take it for granted that it’s obvious why people should join us, because it is not. We have to ask ourselves: Why should people come to our church? Why do we think they need to be here? What are they missing because they are not?

Many are unhappy. They’re lonely, they feel disconnected, and their lives may lack direction, but they wouldn’t necessarily say that the answer to those problems is religious community. Yet for many, it can be. The church is in the business of loving, of giving hope, of making meaning, and that’s what many people need. Church can be even more essential than our iPhones.