What happens when you are 20 years behind the time

First of all, if there is anybody left watching this blog, hello! It will be a pleasure to share life with you again. I hope you all had a blessed Christmas and are having a wonderful New Year.

Recently, we at BVBC have been talking about the changing church culture we minister in. No longer are we ministering in the "Churched Era". We have entered the era when most people we meet don't have a history that involves a church. If we continue to minister as we did 20 years ago, we will find ourselves out of touch at best, irrelevant at worst.

I was reminded of this with a recent experience I had "Prepping for a trip!"

Jen and I are taking the kids to see the M-O-U-S-E at the end of February (It is a surprise, so don't tell them! More on that later) The last and only time I was in Florida, I sunburned through SPF 11000. Not wanting to repeat that on this trip, I decided to try a tanning salon to try to get a base tan before we headed down.

I walked into the local Nail/Tanning salon this afternoon. My clerk didn't speak English very well, but once we got the initial business done, she instructed me to a booth. I asked her how much time she had put on the clock, and she said "12 minutes". 19 years ago was the last time I was in a tanning booth. 12 minutes sounded about right for the most fair skinned whiteboy in the world, but just to be safe, I said, let's lower it to 10.

Ten minutes later, as I am getting out of the bed, feeling a little bit prickly, I noticed a sign on the side of the bed that said "Danger". It looked like one of those, "Make sure you unplug this unit before servicing it" Danger signs. On further examination, the sign actually had a timetable on it that basically read, "No basetan, Paste-white burn freaks should only tan for 2 minutes.

Two Minutes!!!! I just fried for 10! Two valuable lessons were learned from this experience. Number 1 ask for and read the directions! Number two, don't assume 19 year old rules apply. I forgot to take into account that over the last 19 years the technology changed, allowing what used to take place in 10 minutes to now take place in two.

Are we, the church, running the same risks if we don't seek out the new rules, seek to understand the culture we are now immersed in? I look forward to finding those answers... Just after I put on another layer of Aloe Vera!