HOW MANY PEOPLE DOES IT TAKE TO CHANGE A LIGHTBULB?

Change? You can't change that lightbulb, my grandmother donated that lightbulb!

As I preached on Sunday, "Churches can be places of deep history. It is part of the nature of church - we are keepers of an ancient sacred story. But there is a danger when we live in the past. Because in every way that truly matters, we don't. "The time is now." It always is." And yet we value where we have come from and we honour those parts of our past that continue to inspire and have relevance for today.

Sometimes the honouring of the past is at odds with ministry in the present. For the past year or so, I have taken the lead in introducing and using projected images and words during the Sunday worship experience. It has been an intentionally measured process. I began with a borrowed projector, projecting the words to a couple of hymns on Christmas Eve two years ago. It freed up people's hands from the hymnbooks, so they could more safely hold candles - a tradition that we did want to have to set aside. It was a wonderful mix of the history and the modern meeting.

The next summer, on behalf of the church, I purchased a projector for a special Sunday service and began using it here and there for the past year. For many people, especially those who are involved in the formal decision making in the church, this was widely supported. And yet, I still am carrying this 'project' (so to speak). Because of me, there is some form of projection every Sunday that I am here. I do all of the prep work (creating the slide shows) as well as the button-pushing on Sunday mornings. I must admit it has been a challenge playing guitar and changing slides at the same time. The only help that has ever been offered has come from my children. But I'm okay with where things are for now. I know that I am pushing an envelope here and that if I stop pushing too soon, the envelope will simply reshape itself.

Things are at the point where I am testing the will of the congregation to make the projection system more fixed (right know, the projector sits on a small table and projects up on to a wall). Now history and modernity are clashing. Every thing has a time and purpose under heaven. that seems also to be true at the front of our sanctuary. Do we make a structural change and move some things to new places to make room for a screen? Do we give up wall space (that has been used for painstakingly and beautifully made banners? Are we worshiping the things of our past? Are we replacing that with worship for the latest technology to ascend upon the United Church?

This church went through a similar displacement process a few years back when one of our rooms was given up to create an accessibility ramp. The nursery moved, the choir lost their room, the office was used and then cleared out for a student minister. Eventually new file cabinets and remodelled cupboards in one of the multi-purpose rooms was to be the final step. And yet, just in this past week, I heard some words of discontent about how things aren't as good as desired.

Change is challenging. I am trying to lead some change. At this point, the line up behind me isn't very long. Ah well, I'll focus on what's ahead.