Yesterday----Today----Tomorrow

Found this quote a few minutes ago:

Henry Ford once said…
”We should be guiding our future by the present, instead of being guided in the present by the past.”

Okay - Henry Ford was no philosopher - but there's something about this that intrigues me.

How do we lock our present into the past in the church? There are some things we have no control over - our architecture is locked in time, for example - but the "how we do church stuff" is becoming more and more fluid...

We talked about moving the church library down onto the main floor of the church - building beautiful oak book shelves on one wall in one of the parlors. The idea was to get the library visible and, hopefully, to encourage people to use it. There was much resistance. The loudest criticisms came from people who said it would "spoil the aesthetics of the parlor" or something like that. The original intent of these rooms would be ruined. Besides, they said, people who want to use the library (a very heavily implied "other people, not me of course, I don't care what books the church has" ahem...sorry) they can use the elevator to get to the second floor.

Here's what fascinates me. The people who are so worried about the keeping everything original use the argument that people can use the 8 year old elevator... I think it's McManus who says something like we quickly embrace the change of convienence (I'm paraphrasing). We LOVE indoor plumbing and electricity and even microphones (though it would be better if loudspeakers weren't so...ugly...). How about the furnace, the hot water...and on and on. We will embrace the changes that make us more comfortable - in the areas that are our comfort zones - but don't mess with ANYTHING (even something as trivial as putting up a bookcase) that I don't like...because it doesn't make ME any more comfortable...

Sigh...the big debate on pew pads was what color...not, "does it spoil the aesthetics of the pews?"

So - how can where we are now guide where we need to go? Musing...