Changing Times

What a fortnight it’s been for hearing news of the demise of some pretty well-known names on our High Streets.  Last week the photo shop Jessops announced it was going into administration and just two days later closed every one of its stores.  Quick on the heels of that development came the news that HMV are struggling to survive,  immediately followed by a statement from the video store Blockbusters that they too have entered administration.

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to work out the link between developing ‘on-line’ shopping trends and the tailing off of ‘foot-fall’ through traditional shops.  Technology is changing the face of every High Street in the country.

Actually the use of the computer, the iphone, the ipad, itunes....and so on....impacts the lives of most of us – especially if you have teenage sons!

Just the other day I mentioned to one of our boys that we’d have to wait until they had returned to school the next day and chatted to a friend about a mutually convenient date before we could make a certain arrangement.  They looked at me blank – as if I were from another planet – and said:  ‘Why?  We can Facebook him right now and see if he’s free that day’.  Stupid Dad – of course they could! As someone who still has problems texting I find myself never fully catching up with the technological ‘norms’ my sons just accept as their birthright!

It’s sometimes said that our responsibility as disciples of Jesus Christ in OUR day and age is to constantly seek to ‘forward the gospel to a new address’.  In other words whilst the essence of that gospel remains constant we need to be aware of how we present it and live it out.

Although we often readily accept such a way of thinking in relation to ‘youth work’ – it’s equally true in every area of church life.  Northing stands still forever.  What has to gospel to say to an increasing number of families in our church communities who have members living longer and struggling with dementia?  What has it to say to those struggling with issues of sexuality?  How might it help folk who can no longer just accept an entirely literal view of scripture?

None of these questions will go away if we just retreat into the Christianity of our childhood or even youth.  We all need a willingness to work at faith and make those connections between what we sing about in church and how we live in society.  I think that’s an exciting, if demanding,  journey.  It’s what our Life and Faith Groups are doing here at Amersham Free Church, it’s what the ‘Transforming Congregations’ evening was about at Chesham on Tuesday and it’s what we were talking about at Amersham Churches on The Hill council this week under Restoring Faith in Democracy.

‘Forwarding the Gospel to a new address’ – not a bad ‘strap line’ for mission.

Best wishes,

Ian