FCFI
January 5, 2025
Well, we’re a full week into the new year and I wonder just what the year holds for us? Someone asked me the other day how I felt as a pastor entering this year and how I am advising people to approach it? My advice is to go in with a positive attitude, expect the best, and look for the best in people. There are plenty of things wrong in the world and it’s easy to find fault, but that is never the best route, but it’s always the easiest. And it usually leads to the most anxiety.
I spent a large portion of my childhood growing up in the Vietnam War era. We mostly listened to the news reports on the radio, but sometimes we’d watch the evening news. A picture speaks a thousand words and the images of the war, the protests, the hippies, the politics, and the whole scenario left a lasting impression on my young mind. I remember one scene on television that has stuck with me all these years – a young Viet Cong boy who looked to be about my same age, was executed in cold blood by his own people as the tv cameras rolled and recorded the whole thing. That image of the horror of war has never left me. I remember thinking at that time that we as humans can do better. I hope we are.
I was teaching a class of young people at our church about the Bible and the topic of technology came up. It’s hard to ignore technology. It’s also kind of difficult to comprehend how far we’ve come just in my own lifetime. When I was kid, on special occasions dad would get the eight millimeter movie camera out and walk around the house with the camera rolling, which meant the tape was moving from reel to reel recording as it went. A double light bar with lights so bright you couldn’t look up illuminated the area. Later, when we got married we asked someone if they could record the event with a super eight millimeter camera. Then a few years later, we transferred the tape to a VHS venue and then a DVD and eventually it was preserved digitally. Progress.
I have a friend who owns a trucking company. He’s about 20 years younger than me but he had to learn how to adapt to technology too. He said when he started out he had a road atlas in every truck. Maps would be drawn out ahead of time on where they were going. Most of the time the drivers could get close to their final destination, but a phone call from a nearby cafe or pay phone was usually required to guide them the last few miles. Pay phones – the only time we see them now is in the movies.
My wife and I own an original 1936 Chevrolet car that we get out in the summertime and drive in parades and such. The speedometer goes to 100 mph. The car tops out at about 55, but I would not recommend driving it at that speed. For one, the motor is not designed to revolve that fast. The speedometer is just for show. At 55 miles per hour, it sounds like the car is about to blow up. Secondly, the car is difficult to hold onto the road at any speed over 35. The tires are 8 ply and very skinny. When the car was made, most of the roads were gravel or dirt. The vehicle was made for that type of environment. When you get going down the highway on a hard surface, it tends to wander all over the road. In 1936 most people still had horses. To travel to town in a car going 35 mph was breakneck speed. Riding to town inside a vehicle was sitting in the lap of luxury. In the winter you put the car up on blocks and hitched up the horse and sleigh. We’ve come a long way.
When I first started out as a pastor over 30 years ago, the technology we had in place at church consisted of a microphone, a speaker, and a tape recorder. Before I’d start the sermon, I’d step off to the side of the stage and engage the recorder. If someone wanted a copy of the sermon, we’d pass the tape around during the week. Later, we bought a machine that would copy the tape so we could make multiple copies and deliver them to the shut-ins. That was all the technology we needed.
Today, we have a digital Jumbotron outside and a radio transmitter that sends the vocals right to the speakers in one’s car. This is handy for the elderly and the infirm. Our services, like just about everyone’s, are broadcast over the Internet and preserved on our web page. I pray that one day, when we get to glory, there will be people there because the technology available led them to hear and act upon the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ – if not from us, from someone else. In Matthew 24:14 Jesus said: “And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” One reason why we expect the return of Jesus at any moment is because modern-day technology has taken the gospel to every corner of the globe. Progress.
(Kevin Cernek is Lead Pastor of Martintown Community Church in Martintown, Wisconsin).