“Bear with me a little, and I will show you, for I have yet something to say on God’s behalf. I will get my knowledge from afar and ascribe righteousness to my Maker.” Job 36:2-3
I am not a particularly handsome man. Therefore, I naturally gravitated to the axiom of Red Green, “If women don’t find you handsome, they should at least find you handy.” It is a quality I have striven to maintain as my youth has faded through the years. Being handy, I will usually at least try my own hand at a task before turning to someone else.
Recently, my daughter handed me her Kindle and asked me a familiar question, “Can you fix it?”
Her Kindle would not charge despite all the jiggling and positioning of the charger in the power port. I was now handed a dead device. I don’t think my daughter really believed that I could fix her Kindle, but a handy father was her last resort.
The black Kindle screen defiantly reflected my stupefied face, challenging all my experience. I did not have the first clue of where to begin a display of handiness on this electronic device. Therefore, I was forced to revert to the unspoken sanctuary of the homely handy – YouTube.
A quick search revealed that my daughter’s Kindle suffered from a design flaw. The power port is inadequately supported and the connections to the printed circuit board (PCB) can easily be broken; hers were completely broken.
I soldered the broken connections of the power port onto the PCB, reassembled the device, and inserted the power cord. After a short period of recharging, I expectantly picked up the Kindle. I briefly saw in my daughter’s eye that little girl’s belief in her handy Dad. A glimmer of belief that faded when nothing happened after repeatedly pushing the power button.
It was not fixed.
It was not a stellar display of my handiness and I had a gnawing feeling that somehow I had diminished the future prospects of the homely handy. I had revealed the secret truth of many handymen – YouTube. One can find a YouTube video showing you how to do just about anything.
We live in a new era.
When I grew up, I went to my dad, the most knowledgeable person I knew, to inquire about how to fix something. That is no longer the case. I can find more knowledgeable experts with a few search words and a couple clicks of the mouse. Our need for the retained knowledge of the handy has changed with the information age.
As a result, the homely handy face an uncertain future.
Will women ever find the un-handsome as handy as before when they know what YouTube holds?
Has YouTube stolen the best hope of us homely handy men of ever being viewed as attractive by women?
I think that we do live in an era of change that has more important implications than the perceived handiness of homely men. We get an incredible volume of information from the internet. We have an assortment of experts available via our smartphones wherever we go.
This availability changes our need for those gatekeepers of knowledge. I believe this phenomenon of the information age is transforming how we use handymen, doctors, lawyers, engineers, bankers…and pastors.
There was a time when the local clergy were the most knowledgeable theologians people knew. They were the ones with the seminary education, the theology books, and the training. They were the experts regarding all things God. Therefore, many local pastors assumed the primary role of educator for the congregation.
Not much has changed in many congregations. Just consider the weekly activities of the typical Church. The majority of those activities revolve around education. The typical draw of Sunday morning is the sermon, which is modeled upon an academic lecture.
Is your pastor still the most knowledgeable theologian you know?
Mine isn’t.
How can he be?
I have access to some of the greatest theological minds of centuries within a few key strokes. I can watch world-class communicators eloquently preach the Word of God via streaming. I can listen to podcast after podcast regarding any theological question that I might come up with. And then there are the blogs…It is not fair to compare my local pastor to these individuals who I can access on the internet.
Now, I am not arguing that it should be this way. I am arguing that it is this way.
Like so many other areas of my life, the information age has changed what I need from my local church. There is a cultural shift happening that is driven by technology. The availability of information is changing nearly every aspect of our lives. It is changing our expectations. It has already changed our need for experts.
The rise of the mega-church seems to be a result of this collaboration between technology and our tendency to follow a dynamic teacher (an expert). Inversely, I wonder if some of the decline in the local church’s appeal is not related to a traditional education model whose value has been diminished by technology.
Does the local pastor face as precipitous a fall as the homely handyman?
In my next blog, we can wrestle with ideas of how the Church might want to respond to this information age to further God’s kingdom and glory.
PRAYER: Father, thank you for the world that we live. Thank you for the availability of such wonderful teaching and insight that I would never have had access to just 20 years ago. You are doing incredible things in this world. Father, give us wisdom to know how to meet needs. Give us understanding to know what our hearts and souls need to grow in sanctification. Help us to minister in this informational age. I pray this in the precious name of your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen
A DEVOTED LIFE 