If this is the Communication Age...whatever happened to the communication?

“Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after.”  Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Recently, Jane and I bought a new dish. Okay, it’s not really ours. And while it’s something you use, you can’t eat off of it…though you can eat in front of it, or at least you can eat in front of what it serves up to you.

  For some time, we’d had the most basic cable plan. But as Time Warner began to lose more and more stations, and kept raising our monthly bill higher and higher, we finally decided to switch. (And yes, I know that I’m a pastor and should only be reading my Bible and praying 24/7 BUT I really do like NCIS. Does it get me off the hook if I also watch the Packers periodically? :) ).

  But all of a sudden, for less money, we went from 20 channels to 120. We now have at least two jewelry stations, a horse racing channel and even the Weather Channel (I’ll be glued to that one come January). To make certain that the one eyed monster increases my spirituality, there are several religious channels as well…even a Prayer Channel. I figured it out. I can watch every channel in a 24 hour period, but only for 12 minutes a channel.

  Do you remember in the movie, You’ve Got Mail, how excited Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan would get when they received an email? Well, the excitement is long over. Do you find yourself ignoring more emails these days? When you do open one, do you find you skim, only to discover later that you missed some vital information? How many times though do you check your email a day? Compare that to how many times we receive “snail mail.” Can you imagine someone going out to their mailbox every hour to see if some new piece of mail might have arrived? Yet, many of us check our email several times an hour.

  Does it bother you when you see people that are “over connected”? They’re ranks are growing. They’re everywhere. I notice it most when I go out to eat. I’ll be sitting at my table and I’ll look over and see what is obviously a couple. One or both of them is texting away on their phones, having a conversation with someone possibly hundreds of miles away, yet ignoring the person sitting right across from them at the table. Sometimes they are even so gauche as to actually talk on their phone to someone miles away while ignoring the person that they’re sharing a meal with.

  When the Blackberry came out, they were referred to as the “Crackberry,” because owners were addicted to their little screens. But the infection has spread so that now someone who doesn’t have a smartphone is considered a caveman. There’s even smartphone envy where you find yourself coveting the more up to date one with the latest features.

  The truth is that Communication Age is aging us…at the very least, it’s stressing us out. And I haven’t even mentioned Facebook, Twitter, Instant Messaging or the thousands of radio stations we have available. Is it any wonder that there is an epidemic of IOF (Information Overload Fatigue)?

  My two favorite words are “Honey” and “Dad.” When I’m referred to by either of those two names, I try to listen up. Yet, I find that often I can be so overwhelmed with all of the other communication channels that I miss out on my two favorite “channels.” I’ve had to take some proactive steps. I try to put my phone or laptop away. Turn off the TV (muting it doesn’t work for me…too many eye candy distractions). But I know that I’m suffering from IOF when Jane or one of my kids says, “But I told you about…” and I’d totally missed it.

  All of us deal with IOF. We’re bombarded with communication from countless sources. That poses a big challenge for us here at church, particularly right now.

  We’ve come to one of the most important moments in the history of our church. There’s a lot of information that we’re seeking to communicate clearly and in a very timely manner. So we need you, as part of the church family, to listen very carefully and to process this information.

  Because we know the cultural struggle that we have with IOF, we’ll be repeating, working through, defining and explaining much of the information again and again. We want to make certain that everyone hears and understands what we’re seeking to do and where we’re seeking to go.

  Please understand, this is NOT about us. We truly believe that if we’re going to be and do what God has called us to do; we must take these next spiritual steps forward. We are at a historical crossroads in our ministry. We have a both a tremendous opportunity and an awesome responsibility.

  So what can you do? Listen. It’s that simple. Yet, none of us want you to just listen just to us. The most important voice that you must listen to is the still, small voice of the Spirit of God in your own heart (Psalm 46:10; 1 Kings 19:11-13). I’m confident that if each of us will do that, and if we’ll come humbly and obediently before the Lord, we’ll move forward with this next step for our church.

  I know that God wants us to be more effective in making disciples of Jesus Christ. We’ve been limping for a long time. We’ve been attempting to use a 1955 tool of a building that greatly handicaps us.

  All around us are lost individuals looking for answers, reason, hope, love, forgiveness. Most don’t even know what they’re looking for. They just know that what they have is leaving them empty.

  We have the living water that satisfies thirsty souls (John 4:13-14). We have a Great Commission given to us by King Jesus to share that living water with everyone, whenever and wherever we can. That’s what this is all about, that’s what Building Changed Lives Together is about. It’s about reaching our community, our loved ones, our friends and neighbors for Christ. It’s about pleasing King Jesus and hearing Him say, “Well, done, good and faithful servants.”