We are annual conferencing in Shreveport, La. the next three days, and what that means apparently is that we are doing all things new.
On the first evening, we tailgaited (my choice was a meatball hoagie which was good but not exceptional if I were to be giving a review -- which I guess I just did); we had worship, with the Bishop's Episcopal address built around some film clips from the movie Jobs, a tale about the extraordinary life of Steve Jobs that was a failure at the box office (just saying); and we saw what I perceived to be a bunch of modern dancers.
My take on it all? Everything old is new again. We pushed very hard, including a request for Facebook and Twitter usesage as well as a request for the use of our cell phones during a darkened part of the service as some sort of modern candlelight procession.
We did a lot of mixed-culture work, with loads of what I think was Spanish reading of the scriptures. We came, we read, we spoke, we danced. We did a bunch of things we've never done before.
But it all came down to a loaf of bread, a cup, some juice and the wonderment of Communion with God.
See, it seems to me that no matter where you go, no matter what you do, no matter how you dress (we were dressed very casually including loads of shorts-wearing clergy on a horribly warm Sunday evening), it all comes down to the basics.
We speak the Gospel, we tell the tales of Jesus, we preach one man, one cross, one resurrection for the lost and we break bread and pour wine.
It all comes down to that man, that cross.
We're doing plenty of great things in our denomination, and we're losing members like water through a cheese cloth. We're doing all the things that folks say is the way to reach those persons who are scrambling around in broken lives. Yet we're not reaching.
What to do?
Preach the Gospel. Feed the poor. Touch the incarcerated. Help the hungry. Preach the Gospel.
In our inner-most moments, it's about this and this alone. I still believe the Gospel can and does reach the hearts of those who don't even know they need reaching.
Dancing, tweeting, hoagies and such are wonderful. But it's about Jesus. Always about Jesus.
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