As we were moving things around the upstairs for the flooring project recently, I discovered my first “smart phone”. That makes it about ten years old. It was a contemporary of the first generation of iPhone. Back then I wasn’t connected the way I am now. I only got that smart phone because when I went to my new parish in Maryland, my wardens and many others in leadership were texting me. I didn’t text much because I had a phone without a separate keyboard. I had to type some numbers three times to get the right letter, for example. It was miserable. So, the wardens sat me down and said, “We’re buying you a smart phone and paying for your data – we want to be able to communicate with you more easily.” And they did. The phone was a Nokia hybrid that had a full keyboard on the bottom half and a color screen on top. It was Nokia’s answer to the Blackberry when no one yet had an answer for the iPhone.
Discovering my old Nokia reminded me that things have changed a lot since that smart phone. Most notably, Nokia, which had been the dominate cell phone producer, and the inventor of the smart phone, doesn’t exist anymore. They collapsed in the years after Apple’s iPhone and the Android platforms, eventually being scooped up by Microsoft. Which makes me think; how does a company go from being on top to failing so quickly? How is that possible? It’s not a new phenomenon. Remember Kodak? Kodak was a near monopoly in the film and camera world. They invented the first digital camera, for Pete’s sake. But, they too fell far from their throne, and are now an incredibly smaller company that barely survived bankruptcy.
Sometimes we get it in our heads that when something is at its peak, when it is at its dominance, that it always will be. Especially if it’s something we have a lot of pride in and emotional connection with. I’ve been reflecting on other places where we might be seeing the Nokias and Kodaks of our day. Is Apple going to fall (no pun intended) as they struggle to bring new innovations to market and so much of what was once novel technology becomes run-of-the-mill? And what about institutions that aren’t businesses? What about the church? What about the United States? We tend to think that such things will always be what they are, will always be vibrant, and will always represent an important pinnacle of achievement on some level or another. But that’s not the case at all.
History tells us that churches can flourish and decline at different points in their history. Nations rise and fall. We know this, and yet we tend to take them for granted, nonetheless. We simply assume that what has always been (at least by the measure of our “always”) will always be. We can lose focus, and injure through neglect. We can become distracted by dazzle and forget the substance. We can also focus on the past, even long for it, without giving thought to the future we envision and how we will get there. As I counsel couples before they get married, we talk about how no marriage is a given. We don’t stay married to our spouse simply because of the vows we make. It is a result of steady intention and attention to the importance of the relationship. We can and should have a vision for what we want our relationships to be, whether they are marriage relationships, or relationships with an institution, and then put in the loving effort to make those visions into reality.
It's not all about us. I do know that. Institutions themselves must be willing to adapt as time marches on. They must be responsive to the needs of those they protect, serve, or care for. They must also make sure they remain relevant. It’s too easy for us to celebrate what is wonderful and lose track of the challenges and disruptors that threaten us. Nokia and Kodak are examples of a failure to interpret the impact of disruptors that threatened their models and their successes. In both cases they were aware of them, but simply didn’t know what to do with the opportunities those disruptions offered them. Ultimately, they failed to capitalize on their knowledge and chart a new course. I won’t say that they didn’t take risks – they did. They just gambled on the wrong things. And they failed as a result.
As we read about declining churches, (note: The Episcopal Church’s decline has slowed in recent years), and shifting attitudes about church membership, (Pew reports that once a month is regular attendance in churches now); as we see people’s attachment to institutions and willingness to support them with their money and energy wane; as we note the reality that for many, churches are one more thing on a long list of things competing for intention, we are aware of what our disruptors are. But what will we do about it?
In our nation, which we tend to think of as the high point of freedom and democracy, we fail to recognize that nearly half the world lives in a free country now, and that frankly, our experimental republic is not the top of the heap any longer. In many of the measures, we’re middle of the pack, at best. We are growing more divisive, seeing less and less progress of any kind in Washington, and watching as our standing as the last superpower becomes more and more tenuous, we see that there are disruptors threatening things that we hold dear. The question is, what are we going to do about it?
At the end of the day, we need to give attention to the institutions we hold dear, and act intentionally to build them up. We cannot take them for granted or assume they can repair themselves when damaged. We can all take seriously our calling to be stewards of the communities to which we belong, caring for the people that ultimately make up the institutions we hold dear. This is, in part, what we are to do as followers of Jesus, called to mend the broken and seek unity over estrangement and division. Our task is not to wail and gnash our teeth at the things that are disrupting what we know. Our task, if we’re up for it, is to think creatively about the opportunities disruption offers. Such things do not mean the end as we know it, if we are willing to strive for a different outcome.
Tom+
Gracious Father, we pray for thy holy Catholic Church. Fill it with all truth, in all truth, with all peace. Where it is corrupt, purify it; where it is in error, direct it; where in any thing it is amiss, reform it. Where it is right, strengthen it; where it is in want, provide for it; where it is divided, reunite it; for the sake of Jesus Christ thy Son our Savior. Amen.