Sunday, November 20, 2011

Reflection #10: Youth, Like Their Parents, Are More Busy than Ever

I know I’m getting older when I begin more and more sentences with “When I was a kid…” One of the things I comment about being much different from my childhood is the schedules of parents and children. These days it seems like most people are over-scheduled, with activities running all the time. When I was a kid we played sports, learned music and developed hobbies but without the intensity of today. When I was a ten year old playing hockey I think I played a game a week and maybe had a practice a week as well. There was one tournament during the season which involved the other towns in a 30 mile radius. Today children much younger than that will play three games a week, along with a couple of practices and be involved in many tournaments throughout the season, some of them in other provinces! With that kind of schedule for each child it is no wonder parents are feeling stressed out.

This hyper-scheduled life has an impact on the church as well. It is one of the reasons for decreased attendance at Sunday worship. In our congregation the number of people at worship on a Sunday morning has decreased steadily ever since I’ve arrived. (I don’t think it has anything to do with me specifically, but a person could be tempted to think that way). When I look at the membership records I don’t see that our actual membership numbers are shrinking very much at all, in fact I would say it has basically stayed a fairly consistent size for the past couple of decades. What has changed is the consistency with which people attend. With schedules like I have indicated above it is no surprise that on any given weekend a family with children may be involved in numerous scheduled activities. Even if none of those activities are scheduled on Sunday morning (though that is getting more and more likely) some parents are simply glad for a chance to catch their breath, de-stress and maybe even sleep in.

At one time culture acknowledged Sunday morning as a time that was not to be scheduled – this would allow people to attend church without having to choose between activities (or work). Now church is just one of many, many possibilities on Sunday morning. I don’t think we will ever get that kind of cultural support again – instead people simply have too many things to fit into a weekend and Sunday morning becomes another block of time to use in our scheduling crunch.

Another aspect to consider is simply the ever increasing choices in how to use our time. There was a time (notice I didn’t say “When I was a kid”) when the number of possibilities of what to do with one’s free time was significantly less than now. Back then entertainment choices meant choosing between reading a book, listening to some records, watching TV (if anything good was on the 1 or 2 channels available), having some friends over to play a board game (or to engage is imaginative play outside – ah how many road hockey games had me taking the goalie role imagining myself to be Ken Dryden), or if you had the skill – playing some music. That was pretty well it, not a whole lot of choices really. The electronics revolution changed all that - now at any time of the day people have access to any number of entertainment options – too numerous to list here. So on top of more organized activities outside the home there also are far more activities to keep one occupied inside the home.

In my time in ministry I have seen a shift in the attitudes of parents and youth. In my early years parents looked to the church to provide safe and healthy social and recreational activities (and if the kids got a little religion thrown in with that so much the better). This has changed so that parents no longer see the church as one of the few organizations that can provide a program to “keep their kids busy so they keep out of trouble.” Chances are young people will be less resistant to participating in organizations and activities outside of the church (to avoid social stigmatization at school) and even if the church had a great youth program with lots of fun and amazing activities, other organizations and activities would still take precedence most of the time.

Wishful thinking fuelled by nostalgia for lost youth will not change this current reality. Youth are more busy than ever, parents are more stressed than ever, and society just seems to keep speeding up the pace. We can not compete with cultural and social forces, so until our society wakes up from this ever-increasing busy-ness and decides to get out of the rat race this is the reality the church must work within.

In the meantime we can continue to hold up the need for Sabbath, by which I do not mean a set day for worship once a week, agreed to by all of society, but rather an individual and intentional stepping out of the hectic-ness of life on a regular basis – a time to slow down, to quiet down, to reflect, to pray, to be with family and friends in a non-structured way. A time to reconnect with God and with others, a time to ask questions about our priorities, a time to be still and hear the gentle whispers of God’s Spirit, a time not for more programming (even if it is religious) but for less. A time to remember, and in remembering becoming more aware of the presence of God in our lives. Perhaps then we will understand that we are ultimately not the masters of our own little worlds, but the one who is loves and cares for us – for all time. Then our faith in God can be strengthened and restored, and finally we find true peace, not just inactivity.

Monday, November 14, 2011

Reflection #9: The Computer has Changed So Much

My adult life has basically spanned the history of the personal computer. In my final years of seminary education I wrote my papers on a Commodore 64, using a dot-matrix printer with tractor-fed paper. Compared to today’s computers that early machine couldn’t do very much, very fast - but in those days I was very grateful to be able to edit an assignment using those early word processing programs. That early computer saved me the hassle of having to retype a whole page (or sometimes a whole paper!) In those early years I also began experimenting with music software, creating music with sequencing programs - using MIDI synths and percussion modules. Often these MIDI tracks were synced to a multi-track cassette machine for my early recording experiments. I even had a rudimentary notation program that allowed me to do some basic transposing and arranging of printed music. Suddenly I was less reliant on others, I could do a number of things myself using this new technology. This has been both the blessing and curse of computers entering my life.

In the early years of my ministry bulletins and church newsletters had to be typed – thus all layout was done by the cut and paste method. That was familiar to me because of my work on school yearbooks as a teenager. In my early years at Christ Lutheran Church I remember hunting for appropriate graphics, re-sizing them on the photocopier and literally piecing The Broadcaster together (our church’s quarterly newsletter). Then a young member of the congregation got a computer and bought some graphic design software – this led to me still working late into the night, but now I was sitting beside George Flengeris in the basement of his mother’s house using a mouse to move elements of the newsletter around - no more scissors and glue, no more worrying about wrecking the only copy of an article. The computer meant some freedom from those types of worries, but soon new concerns cropped up. What was happening was the computer was raising my level of expectation – what would have been acceptable layout and design in the cut and paste era now looked to shoddy and unprofessional. The computer allowed me to express my perfectionism in a new way. (I used to think I wasn’t really a perfectionist, but since I’ve started using computers I find that I can obsess over details that probably don’t matter that much to the average person – especially in the realm of graphic layout or music recording.) The temptation has become to make things “as good as possible” and with computers there is always more tweaking that can be done.

I’m now discovering a new version of this problem in the area of photo processing. Back when I shot 35mm slide film, the picture either looked good when projected or printed, or it didn’t. Now with software like Photoshop I can tweak pictures endlessly – and this can actually hinder the joy of photography if I’m not careful. I can end up spending hours in front of a computer screen trying to fix up pictures to be as perfect as possible (not what I particularly enjoy) or I could be outside in nature using that time to take more pictures (which is my favourite aspect of photography.)

Computers were supposed to be labour-saving devices, but so too were washing machines. A strange thing happened when washing machines arrived on the scene, what was once considered ‘clean enough’ now became identified as dirty, and an item of clothing worn once was tossed in the wash. Rather than decrease the workload, because of the change in expectation, the workload actually increased! So too with computers, rather than change the workload, they simply changed the way we worked. Rather than reduce the amount of time we spent working they simply added to the amount of work we could do on our own, and in many ways we work more now because of computers than before they existed.

If I was to sum up how computers have changed my ministry in one word, it would be communication. Computers have given me more communication tools. I now have so many different ways to communicate with others. I can still work up a letter on my computer, print it off and mail it, but far more likely I will compose an email and fire it off at any time of day or night. I have used Skype to participate in meetings (saving me the time and expense of traveling to a meeting in another city – though I’m not convinced yet that meeting this way is as helpful as being all in the same room together). I use the internet to gather and disseminate information, the latter being done mostly through web pages and blogs like this one. I have even discovered the value of social media like Facebook, a way to keep in touch with friends and parishioners. This past year I even engaged in some online pastoral counseling using Facebook chat – I never would have predicted that possibility five years ago.

The downside of this wealth of communication tools is that we are always available, and immediate replies are beginning to be expected. Thus if I am not intentional about avoiding email and such on my day off, I never really get a day off. In some ways this is similar to the consumer world we live in with stores being open for more and more hours in a week. Now we expect to be able to purchase whatever we need or want whenever that need or want becomes apparent. There was a day and age when stores in my home town were closed for 2 or more days of the week – and yet everyone got what they needed. Now my home town has large grocery stores that are open 24/7 – who needs to buy groceries at 3 AM? But amazingly, if it is open they will come – even at 3 AM. So now we take that same “get it when you want it” attitude and apply it to communications and we expect instant replies. Is there a price to be paid for being always available? I suspect there is, and it comes in the form of higher stress levels, among other things.

So would I give up my computer? No way! For all its problems I have come to rely on this machine for the way I do much of my work. I arrange and transpose music for use in worship using the computer. I keep in contact with the various groups I am in charge of at the church using the computer. I do all my record keeping using the computer. I create services and sermons using the computer. I design posters and brochures for various programs of the church using the computer. I do Bible study using the computer. In fact the largest single portion of my work schedule is probably spent in front of the computer screen. 25 years ago I would not have seen that development. The computer has become an indispensable tool in ministry, but in the end it is still about the people, not the tool – and that will never change.

Sunday, November 6, 2011

A Little Pre-Service Ritual of Mine

Humans seem to need ritual, we engage in ritual action in many ways and many contexts – from religion to sports, from ancient to current, from communal to personal. It is interesting for me to learn of pre-game rituals developed by athletes – everything from listening to a certain type of music, to eating certain foods, to putting on part of their uniform a certain way. Some of these pre-game rituals seem silly, or even superstitious - others make sense as a way of helping the athlete mentally and physically prepare for the game.

There is a pre-service ritual that I use to prepare for leading worship, something I have done for many years now. I’m not sure exactly when I started this ritual or even where it came from - it is possible that it is something that I spontaneously did one Sunday and because it was helpful I have continued ever since. I have decided to share this ritual on this blog because I hope it will be helpful to others – for the parishioners who wonder what I’m doing up front on a Sunday morning, and for other clergy who might choose to make this ritual part of their pre-worship routine.

It has been the practice at Christ Lutheran Church for as long as I have been here (over a quarter century now) that prior to the worship service starting the pastors will kneel at the altar rail for a moment before beginning the service. It is safe to say that most people would assume the pastors are praying, but what exactly are they praying? This is where my ritual comes in.

When I kneel at the altar I close my eyes to block out as much distraction as possible, then I take a deep breath in – this is how the ritual begins. Once my lungs are full I begin to exhale slowly through my mouth – as I focus on my breath leaving my body I repeat in my mind these words “I empty myself that I might be filled by you.” This is my simple prayer, repeated in my mind until I have emptied myself, as much as possible, of my breath. Then I begin to breathe in slowly and fully through my nostrils - as I draw in this breath I silently pray the words “Fill me that I might serve you” repeating that prayer until my lungs are full again. When this breathing prayer is finished I rise from my kneeling position and begin the worship service.

This is the meaning I give my little ritual: By breathing out through my mouth I imagine getting rid of all “my stuff” – I do not want the worship I am responsible to lead filled with “my words, my motives, my needs.” I recall Jesus’ words “what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles.” (Matthew 15:18) When I pray “I empty myself” these are the kinds of things I am thinking of.

For me the inward breath recalls the intimate scene in Genesis 2:7 where the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.” The life-giving Spirit is given through the nostrils, the breath of God filling us with life and love. This prayer then is an invitation for the Holy Spirit to fill me, to guide me, to use me – that my words and actions will be shaped by the inspiration of God’s Spirit.

The simple ritual prayer action now completed I stand centered in the presence of God, assured of the Spirit’s leading, and prepared to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with all who are gathered – I am ready, let the service begin!