What
do Upton Vale’s Senior Pastor, Andrew Green, and Hollywood heart throb actor,
Kevin Bacon, have in common?
Apart from rugged good looks it’s the theme
of being connected.
Kevin Bacon has earned a small fortune from
his EE mobile phone network adverts while Andrew Green has probably not earned
a fortune, but none the less has been preaching on this theme as recently as
last Sunday.
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| Revd Andrew Green |
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| Kevin Bacon |
The EE ad sees Kevin Bacon show how he’s
linked to people from all over the world - from Tom Hanks to Ken Barlow in Coronation
Street – and informs viewers how they can become just like him by joining a
connected network. This is inspired by the six degrees of Kevin Bacon internet
concept where you try to connect any actor to Kevin Bacon through six degrees,
links or stages – google it, it’s great fun.
Both Andrew and Kevin agree that there is
great strength to be drawn from being well connected with the people around us,
Kevin suggests the best way is through EE, Andrew would prefer us to be
connected through our faith in Jesus and commitment to our local church.
You don’t have to wander far in Torquay to
see the dire consequences of shops ‘disconnecting’ locally: Jessops has just
closed; Blockbuster and HMV are in administration; in fact if I start to list
the shops that have closed in our two short years in Torquay, the list gets worryingly
long.
Why are shops closing - because their sales
are no longer enough to keep them open?
People prefer to shop online, ironically using networks such as EE that
encourage ‘connectiveness’ (if that’s a word); yet in doing so they are
disconnecting with the community around them.
Last week I bought a game from ‘Game’ on
Union Street. It was great. My son and I
spent a long time looking around at the latest releases, we compared prices, we
dreamed about buying new wii u’s and xbox connects. And after a chat with the
sales assistant, who also signed us up for a new loyalty card, we paid for our
new game and took it home.
Our sales assistant was cheerful and
friendly, he made us feel special for being in his shop; he made us feel like
he really valued the money we spent there- in a way that an online sale e-mail
confirmation of an order can never do.
We connected with him and it was a good
experience.
I’m sorry to admit that recently I’ve
fallen into the habit of buying things online ‘for convenience’. In fact it’s
frightening how much time I seem to spend with the laptop open, TV on in the
background, scouring the pages of Amazon or EBay or other sites trying to find
the best bargain. And while I’m doing that, I’m
not connecting with the people in
the same room as me, I’m just looking at text and pixels on a screen. Plus when I buy things on line I have to wait
days for my purchases to arrive and then inevitably have to collect them from
the sorting office as I always seem to miss that split second when the goods
are being delivered.
My background is retail, so I will always
prefer real shops to online shops and it upsets me when I see shops closing. I also think there are great parallels we can
draw about Christians being connected with the community around them.
There’s a danger of becoming ‘Online shopper Christians’, where our
faith is largely a private matter conducted in the confines of our own personal
space. We access it when it suits through a media that matches our taste.
We connect only as it helps or fits in with
our lifestyle. We even begin to question
the value of regularly meeting together. Why do we need to after all? We podcast our sermons and when appropriate can
always enjoy a bit of you tube worship.
But just as shops are closing and have a
detrimental effect on the surrounding high street, so our convenient
Christianity can impact our church and the surrounding community.
Belonging to a church isn’t just about
attendance and it’s about more than just ‘what I can get out of it’. Church involves connecting with people;
helping people and being helped.
And so just as I’d always encourage people
to visit a real shop over an online one, I want to encourage people to belong
to a church: your church, my church, our church, their church, any church – it
doesn’t matter which one because through church you give and receive, contribute
and take, serve and be served.
It’s all about connections and being
connected.
Next week I’ll be asking, ‘What do Martin Harris
and Liam Neeson have in common?’
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| Liam Neeson |
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| Martin Harris |
