The Stewardship of Rockin’ to an 8-Track in an iPod World 4


As a younger Gen Xer, I am old enough to remember the 8-track tape.  With my formative years being in the 80s and early 90s, I later spent a small fortune on cassettes. Yes, I even had a few albums and 45s, but could never figure out why I would want to spend my money on something so bulky and easily scratched. I was slow to move into the world of CDs, but quickly adapted when I saw their advantage over my well-worn cassettes and records.

The music remained the same–the mediums changed.  The times changed.  We all changed along the way.  And, wow, how thankful we are for such a shift!

Only the collector now invests in 8-tracks.  Foolish is the company that continues to operate from a cassette culture in an iPod world.

Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” (Mark 13:31, ESV).  So true!  But, we often take this statement to mean that the Christian cultures of the world will also remain as constants. We assume that while Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb 13:8), the Christian economies and the structures and organizations supported by those economies will remain till the end.

We assume that what was for our forefathers will be for us.  So wrong!

It is an exercise in poor Kingdom stewardship when the Church constructs and becomes dependent on creations that should shift and even pass away.  When our vitality is found in the temporal, we have missed the mark.  Though we know this matter to be the case, we all still say together:

  • I can’t start making iPods, for my denomination only has 8-track players.
  • I can’t start selling iPods, for my income depends on the 45 record.
  • I can’t start developing iPods, for I have a B.A., M.Div., and Ph.D. in Cassette Tapes.
  • I can’t point others to iPods, for I will have no one left to listen to me.

Are we too dependent on blessings that were to exist for a season for gospel advancement?  In the Kingdom, the music remains the same–but often the mediums are divinely designed to change.

If the iPod world is our reality, how now shall we live with warehouses full of 8-track tapes and new cassettes rolling off of the assembly line each week?  Let’s not take too long to figure it out–the four billion remain.

 

(image credit: Microsoft Office)


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