Page Lynch

It has been almost a year since Amy and I bought our house.  Many items have been purchased since then, including about 800 tons of coffee for my stomach… Mmmmm… coffee.

Amy and I were having a discussion the other day that was fueled by the phrase “they don’t make stuff like they used to.”  Since we moved in, our garage door broke; we bought a new one; it only closes on its own when it wants to.  Our dishwasher broke; repair costs not worth it; parents bought us a new one (the other one was only a couple years old).  Our water line froze; discovered it had not been properly insulated.  A brand new light bulb went out the day we put it in.  My new Universal Audio 710 preamp came without a nut on the quarter-inch line in (=not good).  My new Fender Telecaster’s top pickup went out within a couple of weeks of purchase.  There is something wrong with my iMac (actually having that checked out tomorrow).  My Lightwave 3D version 9.6 software came with improper installation instructions for inputting the product key; on the phone their response was “they just haven’t fixed that yet” (the INSTALLATION instructions?!).  My soft-box lighting kit came with a bad light bulb (we’re talking $15 a pop for these puppies).  Our new printer’s glass was completely shattered when we opened it (you know, the copy-scanny part).  McDonald’s getting my hot mocha right is a total shot in the dark (and I only go there at random, not regular).

Thank goodness for warranties!… and parents!  But the events that have culminated into little better than a massive waste of time, lend themselves to questioning.  A good question is, “Why can’t they make stuff like they used to?”  Maybe an even better question could be, “How did they used to make stuff?”  Amy has an inherited ’93 Dodge Ram that is a total tank.  With only a short bed and regular cab equalling the length of my ’04 Nissan Xterra, in a game of chicken I have full confidence that this truck would plow through and ask, “What Xterra?”  It is not very economical though.  Quite frankly, its comparable Army tank might actually achieve better gas mileage.  Maybe “going green” means “going weaker”?

At any rate, we then moved on to discussing children in a like manner (as if they came off assembly lines).  ”They don’t respect adults anymore,” we say.  ”No one teaches their children ‘yes, ma’am’ and ‘no, sir.’”  I could feel myself instantly growing hunchbacked with a long, grey beard and a cane, shaking with anger, “Young whippersnappers and your fandangled Fandangos!”  (Click on the [Store] section of my website to hear my old man voice… seriously… I’m not making that up).

Okay, so they don’t make material things or children like they used to.  All my brand new things break.  No children call me “Mr. Lynch.”  I have been seeing a lot more blogs and videos (in recent years) poking fun at “marketing” schemes of churches.  Apparently, churches produce a product they are trying to get others to buy into.  If that’s true, I think we have to ask the question, “Are we making it like we used to?”  We also have to ask, “Which was the better way of making it?”

Those are good questions that do not have easy answers… Mainly, because it is pretty hard to successfully generalize what “the church” is or has been.  I am not trying to answer those questions (not in this particular blog, anyway… maybe in a 1,000 page book, where at the end I write, “In conclusion: I dunno, dude.”).  For now, I believe there to be a greater question: “What would the world be like without Captain Hook?”  You read it right.  Without Captain Hook, Peter Pan would just be some boy in green tights, and the world would certainly be a lot less exciting.  And what a fashion statement that hook is!

What would the world be like without the church (the “Product’s” marketing company)?  Oh, she is flawed alright… But the Product is not broken.  She is just confused about her methods because she was accepted as a standard for so long, but now, in the blink of her eye, a morality switch has been flipped in our culture, making her an adversary.  She is retreating, frozen, and lashing out all at the same time.  She is attacked without and even moreso within.  She needs loving guidance, not judgmental mockery.

In our desires to “make church how it used to be” or to make it something “new,” let us not forget that “the church” is not that building or what it looks like, but us (oh my, how we would look if we really believed that!).  When we finger-point and disparage one another, we break the Product because we dismantle everything It stands for.  And if we continue to bash and devour ourselves and give into the pride of “I’ve figured this thing out,” we will simply create even less unity (hard to imagine) and more of the very thing Peter Pan and everyone else seem so upset about; …catchy hooks.

["I love you." -GOD], [iPray], [We missed you last Sunday!]

Extra! Extra! Read one more paragraph!
Admittedly, I had a terrible time with collecting my thoughts into a manageable snippit of something spiritually nurturing in this post.  As I reread (good practice), all I can hear is the sarcastic voice of Wesley from “The Princess Bride” saying, “Clearly, you have a dizzying intellect.”  Please understand, I joke, yes, but this is a big issue.  I simply cannot rationalize and explain my views in a “little” blog entry so, have grace.  It proved difficult to summarize.  I am well aware that I did not even scratch the surface of either side of this argument.  I merely mean to express my discontent with the way we are treating each other in it.  I have certainly been guilty of judgmental harshness as well.  Let us all go in peace.

Y’all’s bro in Christ,
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