Updating

      Some of you have realized that more of my brains live in my phone and computer than in my skull.  Without the files, contacts, reminders, and above all, calendars, I would be barely functional.

      So this week I updated my iPhone to IOS 8, the new version. The update server was, of course, quickly clogged.  I tend to be near the front of the line when it comes to updating software.  Some people just jump on updates like they are the best thing since sliced bread.  Then they get upset when they are not seamlessly perfect or have differences in what they expected.  Others, of course, never upgrade, sticking with what they know and are used to (my mother still has her trusty ol’ flip phone).  I fit in the middle, interested in seeing how new things work, but also realistic that there will be glitches and maybe even failures.  I fully expect that upgrades will mess with things I like or even drop features I use, but in general I find that the tradeoffs are improvements.  Once in a while I find a revision really bad and roll back, chalking it up to learning something through the experience.

      But I’m probably not going to get the new iPhone 6 when it comes out.  I’m pretty satisfied with the 5 I have, and I’m much slower at upgrading hardware.  What matters to me is the improvement in function and process, the new software for getting things done.  I like to try new ways of doing things more than having a new object.  (But if one of you jumps on a 6 or 6 plus, I’d love you to show it to me after church some day!)

      While waiting for the download, I got to thinking about churches sort of the same way.  I’m really pretty happy with the hardware of the church, but I am always looking for new and better ways of doing the churches functions.  It occurred to me that the bylaws and constitution and the decision-making processes like the Council are like the operating system, and the ways different groups do particular things are like the applications running within the church.  We have the worship app, the children’s apps, the music-playing app, the expense tracking app, the arty quilt app, the crowd-funding app, and so on.  Sometimes a church may swap out an app or redesign it, but it’s just a piece of the whole system.  Sometimes a new idea is a disaster (#fail), but it might turn out to be wonderful.  Just like I sometimes delete an app from my phone because it didn’t work for me, sometimes churches have to delete or roll back something that seemed like a good idea at the time.  Some of you may now understand why I am an interim: I’m willing to try new things but also willing to admit when the results are not worth the change and try something different or something old again.  Bugs can crop up in any changes, too, and have to be fixed.  But I stick with the hardware because it fundamentally is good.  We just may need different ways of doing things.  New things are not automatically good because they are new but because they work better with the needs and hardware of the congregation.  You have to be sensible and sensitive in going forward to get the best out of a church, just like a phone.

      So, let’s keep working on First Congregational Church of Ithaca, version 2015, wisely but confidently, OK?  Go with what works better, even if some of the things that are so familiar get done a slightly different way.  Above all, remember we are in God’s hands.

      (Bread 2.0 was upgraded by Otto Rohwedder’s invention of the loaf-at-a-time slicing machine in 1928.  The first nationally marketed pre-sliced bread was Wonder Bread.  Remember that when we have communion next month!)

                                                                                        In Christ,
                                                                                     
                                                                                         David


Texts For Sunday Worship:
      From the Hebrew Bible      Exodus 16:2-15
      From the Gospels               Matthew 20:1-16