When I was a child very few people had telephones. By the time I got married in 1979 it was normal for most homes to have a telephone, although there was always a wait to get one installed. For the first three weeks of our marriage we had to walk about half a mile to a public telephone box to make calls. A good supply of coins was required to feed the telephone.
I remember the first mobile telephones. My boss had one. It was the size of a brick and the battery lasted no more than two hours. By this time you could buy telephone cards, and a stash of coins was no longer essential when using a public telephone box. I got my first mobile phone in 1995, but in no time at all everyone had one and use of public telephone boxes went into almost terminal decline. Imagine my surprise when I spotted two such boxes side-by-side and still in use in Teignmouth where my parents live.
How have two telephone boxes survived side by side in a small retirement/holiday town on the south coast of the UK? Perhaps it is because they have been adapted to reach/meet the needs of society to communicate in different ways. There are several challenges here for the church:
- If the church is to reach/meet the needs of society then it needs to learn how to communicate in different ways.
- How else does the church need to adapt and change without compromising the Word of God?
- Is it reasonable to expect the lost to walk off the street and into church just because of the label on the building? Although the telephone boxes in Teignmouth were labelled in the language of the Internet age and reaching out to people who need to email I didn’t see them being used.
- What are we going to do about it?
Jason Sneed said:
David, great point! Because of the time we live – our methods much change but the content can never change! My church has begun to understand this over the past ten years. We are in the south and people love their cars and because they do we have hosted a FREE Car Show. The people in our community love this and at the end of each show, we have the opportunity to open God’s Word and share with them what HE did for them and just how much HE loves them.
David said:
Jason a car show is a great idea and one I haven’t come across before. As a church we are constantly reviewing what we do and how we do it. There is stuff we can do in the church using the building, but increasingly we are finding that we need to get out of the building. We did this last year for Halloween (churches in the UK frown on celebrating Halloween) when we took our annual Light Party out of the church and into a local park for the first time. The evening event was preceded by a stall in the centre of town during the day. There are some photos on the Internet if you can access them.
https://picasaweb.google.com/110562984398413967192/TreatOrTreat2011?authkey=Gv1sRgCJTJ_NX_t_SaaQ
meetingintheclouds said:
We definitely need to change. The days of the big tent missions are gone, and even of inviting people to Church. We need to change our methods, but never by compromising the message.
We need to be active in the community. I like the idea of “Game Show” nights, where Christians invite unsaved friends to “Come and be on my team” to participate in shows like Team Feud, Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy, etc. We also have a “Big Race” where participants make a small racing car from a supplied block of wood and axles and wheels. Help is given at a workshop to make the cars and on race night, they are raced on a special track. I like to concentrate on activities that can’t be enjoyed elsewhere. Of course, after supper, a short but pertinent Gospel message is presented.
David said:
The closest we have got to Game Show nights is quizzes and ‘Reel Church’ (movie night). The problem we are finding is that many people just do not want to enter a church building. For instance our most successful events in the men’s ministry are those we hold off-site. These are easier to invite non-Christian friends to, but they are social events only designed to show that blokes who go to church are normal! Such events allow personal testimony within friendship. Our next event will be in the church hall and I am still trying to persuade one of my friends to attend.
meetingintheclouds said:
We hold most of our “events” in the hall and for major ones we hire a community hall – a much less threatening atmosphere. We have several families in the Church who came to know the Lord through these outreaches.
I presume you know the TV show Family Feud? We call it Team Feud. We have boards made up, painted as the Family Feud uses. We use yellow cardboard strips Velcroed to the boards, with the possible answers and these are covered with red strips also Velcroed to the board. The red strips are removed as the answers are given.
Because there are almost always answers left unrevealed, these are thrown to the audience and a wrapped lolly (candy) thrown to correct answers. There is so much laughter throughout the whole night, that people have pains from laughing. It is a great hit and really draws the community in.
We also have boards using Velcro for Wheel of Fortune but it doesn’t offer as much audience participation as Team Feud. Trivia nights are popular, but there are plenty of these available in clubs, pubs, etc so a Church-run one isn’t quite so attractive.
David said:
I think I need a trip down under to get some ideas!
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