Exchanging one thing for another!

Amy and I just signed up for high-speed internet and cable tv. In exchange for these things, we dropped our home phone (so don't call us there any more), our dial-up internet connection, and the antenna we had in our attic that picked up channels 2, 5, 8, 11 and 81 from Atlanta. What we had before had worked fine for us for the last four years, but in the last six months we've realized the limitations of the old set up. You see, we've had friends that have dropped their old systems a while back... going from the limitations of a land line phone to the portability of cellular... going from the painfully slow speed of dial up to the fast pace of hig-speed... and going from the minimal selection and low quality picture of antenna to the quality of cable (okay, so most people dropped their television antennas a couple decades ago... we're a little slower in some areas). Of course, it is a little overwhelming to have all that we've got now and it will take us a while to adjust, but in the long run, I think we'll be glad we made the change.

The biggest problems we faced with our old setup was that we could no longer carry out the "basic" tasks we needed to perform on the internet connection we had. The web has become so complex and so media-driven in the past three years, that our dial-up connection could no longer handle things like email, checking the weather, looking up a phone number, or trying to find a better price on an item. It wasn't that there was anything "wrong" with our old system... it's just that our old system was no longer the most effective tool to use. Our old system was not designed in a way that allowed efficient (or effective) communication with the current web community. So, out of necessity, we had to try something new just to stay informed, up-to-date, and connected with the millions of internet users in the world.

Years ago, I began to notice an uncomfortable shift in the Gen-X subculture that I grew up with. When it came to spiritual things, we (as a group) became more and more willing to trade our spiritual backgrounds for another type of spiritual world-view or to completely give up spirituality as a pursuit of God altogether. In many cases, the worldviews (spiritual belief systems) of people in their 20s and 30s have become so complex that traditional "church-type programs" and "sunday school answers" could no longer keep up with the questions and spiritual crises that this generation faced. These types of things are no longer effective with spiritually reaching the most skeptical, cynical, and distant people in our community. So, out of necessity, we had to try something new just to stay connected with the thousands of spiritually disconnected people in our community.

That's why our Sunday mornings feel a little different... we've created an environment for people to explore faith at their own pace (specifically the people that are least likely to go to church). And, we didn't do it because the old system was "broken," it's just that we couldn't stand the thought of being disconnected from a generation of people that were silently slipping away. So, we had to exchange what we'd always done, for something new. Of course, it is a little overwhelming right now and it will take us a while to adjust, but in the long run, I think we'll be glad we made the change.