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GOD SAVE US FROM OUR PHONES
We've banned phones, computers, and ipads in our church staff meetings.
We've banned them in our guys small groups. We've banned them on retreats.
Shannon and I have banned them from our home between when I get home and the kids bed time. We've banned them on dates.
After my last adult volunteer leader meeting experience, I'm going to ban them from all future meetings.
But I can't figure out how to ban them in our Sunday high school program.
The result today was teaching hell in Encounter. Maybe there's a lot of factors, but the chief distractor, in my estimation is the "damn cell phone". That's the nicest way to put it. The smart phone among teens is anything but smart. They can text, do facebook, check the internet, play music, you name it... the phone is a way to be anything but present and a multi-tasking myth nightmare. It affects their attention to music, worship, games, the message, the people around them... pretty much everything.
Then tonight I saw this commercial.
Every once in a while, the makers of commercials preach to us better than most sermons. Here my friends, is 60 seconds of prophecy. Sadly, it isn't as much hyperbole as I wish it was. It's 90% reality and 10% the extra mile. Watch it. Think about it. Don't blow it off. This IS our cultural reality.
Really? yes, REALLY!
Oh God, Save us from our phones. And as much as I LOVE this commercial, no phone can do this. This is going to require Spiritual Discipline. For the love of all things holy, please unplug.
3 comments:
Props to Microsoft for making a good ad. Not sure how their new cell phone really solves the problem though.
I get your frustration. I'm often convicted at home when my kids are trying to get my attention away from my Iphone. However I'm wondering if we should be banning it or embracing it to more effectively reach students. Perhaps having kids download the bible on their phone and follow along with the teaching that way. Or maybe more chat rooms via texting. Check out this article by Dale Hudson.
http://kidmin360.com/2010/11/08/future-of-childrens-ministry-dale-hudson/
I get what you're saying Tara and I'm not opposed to the phone as tool. But we've tried the alternatives... so far, not much luck. We even get a fairly poor response to texting questions and such as percentage of people who have them. If the phone is out, it might be used to text some convo on our service, but not exclusively. They'll still hold 3 convos with friends and check facebook and whatever. It's just not a tool they have much self-control over at this point. My observation is that it's not a tool most people have much self control over at this point.
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