Sunday, April 20, 2008

Me? Pump My Own Gas?




















Very few of you reading this blog are old enough to remember when pumping gas was a mystery- something done only by professionals. I was probably in high school or college before I pumped my own gas. Attendants filled your tank, wiped your windshield, checked your oil, radiator and even the air in your tires before taking your money.

There was a professional for everything in those days. Your all-knowing physician came to your house if you were ill. A professional sacked your groceries for you and carried them to your car. Even the simplest legal document required that you see an attorney. Every bank transaction required a teller. Every checkout lane had a cashier. Every eating establishment had waiters or waitresses. Every baby was born in the hospital under the no-nonsense control of professionals- no fathers allowed in the delivery room thank you! All television news was delivered by professional talking-heads on network television once each day. All written news was delivered to your driveway morning and evening- written by professional journalists. All television programs were watched when they were broadcast, complete with commercials- or not at all.
Our music came on vinyl discs and we played it in the order the record producers wanted us to hear it.

But the world has changed. We pump our own gas and check our own oil. If you want simple medical advice, you search the internet, often discovering more up-to-date information than even your family physician knows. More often than not we sack our own groceries and take them to our own vehicle. If you want a simple legal contract such as a will or trust agreement you simply fill out the forms on your computer and print it out. We handle 99% of our own banking at the ATM machines and we check out our own groceries in the self-service lane. We serve our own tables at all but the nicest restaurants and we expect to be the one in control at the birth of our children; husband present as we make most of the decisions.

We read blogs and websites created by millions of individuals around the world who each are as entitled to share their opinion as Walter Cronkite and Edward R Murrow. Today newspaper "news" means what happened yesterday. We get most of our information via the internet- often in real time. We watch what we want, when we want via time-shifting technology, and we either edit out or fast forward through the commercials. We mix and match our favorite songs and our favorite artists to our own tastes and carry it all in our pocket on our Ipods.

And so of course it was inevitable that the decentralization of service, information and entertainment would come to the church as well. Every other area of our lives has been individualized as we've shouldered the responsibility for how we live our lives. The role of every full-time paid professional is being daily challenged by the decentralization of power and information. Today we can write our own news stories on our blogs, create and broadcast our own movies via youtube, take care of many of our own basic health and legal needs via the internet and yes- even pump our own gas.

And suddenly we find a growing throng of individuals who are no longer willing to sit quietly on Sunday morning, being told everything from how to interpret scripture to where to give their money. These people want to take an active part in their own faith and are no longer willing to let spiritual professionals and institutions be their primary connection to God. They want to pray for the sick themselves, direct their own giving, create their own worship services, study the scriptures for themselves, serve the poor in their own community and become as much a part of the sharing of God's truths with others as yesterday's priest, pastor or theology professor.

But then doesn't that sound a lot like the disciples? Didn't that rag-tag band of working-class tradesmen turn the world upside down in the first century? Didn't those non-professionals simply share what they had seen and experienced with others, as they went about their business praying for the sick, teaching the scriptures, worshiping God and giving freely of themselves? Didn't they have the same empowering Holy Spirit that we've been given?

Maybe I don't need someone to pump my gas for me after all. At least, that's the way Boompa sees it.