Stephanie Bennett's Blog

Well,where do I begin? First I have to get off the floor after laughing so loud and holding my sides.. I too play tennis;however on hard court. when you fall on clay or hard court we get up and sit for abit and then jump back in on same day, same court, same players. Now the tennis ball may end up going over the fence or you guessed it.. into the net; but much to our surpise it touches the top of the net and SCORE...falls gracefully over on the opponents side.... Nice Play,,Clap on the racket,,and a big tight fist that pumps up and down....Go Team!!! If you ever come to the west coast of florida, Naples, PLEASE DO BRING RACKETS, BALLS and ofcourse your signature visor and sunglasses. We'll provide the water,towels,jump in the pool or hot tub afterwards. guarantee alot of fun and fellowship.

You're a good writer.

I think the whole church is like what happened to the music. Everything is a commodity.

Professionalism of the Clergy (if you are not good looking and smooth, you're not worthy to be heard)
Christian T-shirts (to identify with a click, not to evangelize anymore)
Programs, Programs, Programs! (We can get your kids out of your hair and entertain you at the same time!)
Also a soft gospel also sells better.

Johnny Cox
http://www.joahc.info

Hi Steph. This is Ben, previously from Naples, Florida, now in San Antonio, Texas. Chris, great post!Great posts all of you! I see God revealing more of Himself to us as we seek Him and Spirit and truth. The more we see the more we see what is of ourselves and not what is of Him and from Him. We are seeing this in our understanding of "worship" and its entrappings. Let us keep on listening to His voice and dare to follow Him! God bless you all and may our eyes of understanding be opened even more. Maranatha!
ben \o/

Thanks Steph for stimulating thought. Certainly it is the "information age", but no guarantee of "wisdom of application". Just as one fool can ask more questions, than 10 wise ones can answer. I doubt responsible use of techno could be steered away from abuse... abuse is simply easier. But then walking circumspect requires a full time vigilance... That's my thought anyway... JimP

I think we agree already :-) You wrote, 'there can be no inherent goodness or "badness" in the tools themselves', and I wrote, 'There is a need to alert people to the dangers, and they are real dangers'.

Clearly, you cannot change the environment without affecting everything. Providing people with cellphones or TV sets alters the potential in society, new things become possible for the first time.

For a parallel think in terms of a garden. Scattering fertiliser around changes things, some plants are scorched, others grow faster and larger. The balance is altered and there are many secondary effects that may be impossible to predict.

I think technology changes the human environment in much the same way. I suppose I'd still say the tools are neutral - but their effects are not. Maybe I'm splitting hairs! Are we coming from different directions but ending up in much the same place?

I reckon we are!

Chris

Hey Chris -- thanks for your comments and perspective. As always, very refreshing!

There's one area that I see just a bit differently from you, and that is regarding the supposedly neutrality of technology. I just don't think the tools of technology are neutral. Certainly they do not have "a mind of their own," but their presence and pervasiveness create an environment that is persuasive. From my perspective, the digital landscape upon which more and more of us walk each day is encrypted (if you will) with heavy influence. The cultural sway reminds me of the undertoe that's present in the ocean on some days. It is invisible; we don't notice it, but it pulls us in quite distinct ways.

While I agree with you, there can be no inherent goodness or "badness" in the tools themselves (the only bad cellphone I can think of is one that drops calls in the middle of an important conversation :-), I do believe that new technologies don't just add something to society. Rather, they change everything! (This thought I have directly borrowed from Dr. Neil Postman).

Do you see my point, or do you still feel the tools of technology are neutral?

Thanks for the exchange!
Stephanie

The most striking aspect of all this, at least for me, is how we control our use of technology. Someone once wrote or said, that guns are not dangerous, it's people that are dangerous. And there's truth in that.

Science discovers information about the universe, technology makes tools and gadgets based on that knowledge. Neither of these is either good or bad, I'd argue that such things are neutral. Take a mobile phone, a cell phone. Is it good, or is it bad? Neither!

Take a typical mobile phone user, good or bad? Ah, now we come to the essence of it! Someone who calls to say, 'Let's meet for lunch, are you free?', is making good use of the device. Someone who leaves it switched on during a concert is not! And between these extremes is a range of cellphone behaviours, good and bad and so-so.

We need to take care with all the new technology Steph mentions, in particular we need to be careful how we use it. This may call for some government regulations, international agreements, individual judgements, and above all awareness.

You are right, Steph, to sound a warning note. There is a need to alert people to the dangers, and they are real dangers. The mobile phone is just an example. One of the problems faced by the early environmentalists was that almost nobody took them seriously. Nobody listened.

I wonder how many are listening this time?

Chris

Excellent thoughts, Matt, and thanks for contributing to this blog entry. I feel so strongly about the issue that I have "bit the bullet" and am writing a novel about the very things you mentioned. I started it in 2001, but have not gotten very far. In spite of the wonders of word processing and wireless technology, the pace set by Technology's tools have only increased the busyness in my life. It a circle; the very reason I am writing the book.

Society's longing for the "magic carrot" of technology IS a human effort to free us from the curse. Jacques Ellul, a Frenchman who lived and wrote much socio-political theory in the last century, named this phenomenon, "La technique." It is essentially, the human drive toward efficiency, effeciency at any cost.

On another of my blog entries you will see how I envision the "MAGIC CARROT" of which you speak.

It is up to each individual to take charge of the place of technology in our lives AND in our immediate circle of influence.
Like you, I really appreciate and daily use the communications tools necessary to function in my various roles, but I cannot - will not -- give myself over to letting these inanimate "tools" rule me. Don't let me, okay? We need to look out for each other -- it's part of being human.

I close with a quote from a gentleman/professor whom I truly respect, Dr. Clifford Christians. He writes:

“Our human livelihood is rooted in the principle that we have inescapable claims on one another than cannot be renounced except at the cost of our humanity.” 

This is from an article of his called,"The Sacredness of Life."

Thanks for the exchange; it's terrific!
Stephanie

Actually... The end goal of technology is to bring man into the garden (of Eden) again... Without God. I, an avid user and developer of "cutting edge technology", have recently had to re-evaluate the role of technology in my life. And the technologies I'm willing to develop for others.

If you remember in Genesis 3:17-19:

17 To Adam he [G~d] said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,'
"Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return."

The end goal as I see it is to do all the "hard work" that God has sentanced us (men) to do for us, so that we can be free to wander in the garden again WITHOUT God... Think about all the developments in robotics, Artificial Intelegence, even software tools we use everyday , All of them started off as something to make our life easier, so that we could be a little more free. In essence to "REDEME US" from that curse.

In my opinion many technologies have ended up enslaving many of us (I know it sounds dramatic... but I can demonstrate some very serious examples... in fact... I will)

Example 1: How many people who have grown up with technology can do math without a calculator or computer?

I have a degree in engineering, and have worked for the largest defense contractor in the world. While I was there I worked with many brilliant people. Not a single one of them (NOT ONE) could demonstrate a simple Calculous 1 problem to me without the aid of a calculator. (These are equations they use everyday on the computer, that every first year engineering student is required to learn) When asked how they do the complex computations to do their work they all simply shruged thier shoulders and said...

That's why we have CAD... It does the math for us...

When asked if they ever check the math that comes out of the computer, they looked at me as if I were a mad man. "Why should we? it hasn't been wrong yet..."

I have also taught math at various levels (from primary scool to college level) and found the dependence on technology very disturbing. I know college students that cannot perform (simple, single digit) multiplication without a calculator... I thought everyone had to learn them in primary school... aparently I'm behind the times.

Example 2: Spell checking... (one I'm guilty of)

How many people who use a computer alot can spell on thier own? I know I stop worrying about it, and just type, counting on the spell checker to be able understand what I mean and correct me when I'm done... I know that this is a small one... but it is in my mind a bit symbolic of the dependance and how subliminal it really is

Example 3: The Jobs

As a computer programer, and mechanical engineer, I can say without a doubt, there are very few jobs that could not be done faster, more cheaply, and more reliably by a well programed robot. (I'm not talking 20 yrs down the road, I'm talking about now.) The only reason they are not in YOUR Chair now doing YOUR job is the prohibitive cost of adapting technology to YOUR field. And there are thousands of people working in third world countries, trying to develop ways to make the cost worth it now. Unless you happen to have one of the increasingly more rare jobs that involve creative thinking or development.

You may be thinking my thoughs are a bit extreme. Especially my third example. I am not some crackpot who sits in his basement watching terminator movies all day. I am an engineer, and I have worked with some very brilliant people, and seen some pretty amazing things, and what I said about machines doing jobs is true, the only reasone they are not doing it now, is economics. (be you teacher, lawyer, bus driver, doctor, etc.)

Example 4: Medicen

We all want to be in perfect health until the day we die. And we don't want to die... (I'll note that we had good health in the garden... and for women no pain in child bearing aparently...) Do i need to mention the unending list of pharmasuticals, beauty products, and life saving safety equipment?

So what does this have to do with my point? The end job/goal of this technology is to "free" us (or someone like our boss?) from the confines of work (or pain) so that we can "entertain" our selves. (Economically it is more complicated than that but I'll simplify for this)

Is that not the end goal of many of our socieites? to get "enough" stuff that we can do anything we want any time we want? I know here in America it is "The American Dream". And it sounds a lot like what the Garden of Eden was like before we got kicked out. And somehow, technology has become the brute force and magic carrot in getting us there faster.

btw... I mention the magic carrot, This is a philosophy I developed working in the technology industry to represent the magic acheivement somewhere in the distance that no one ever actually gets to. I think of the cartoon with the primary character sitting in a kart being pulled by a donkey. Character put a carrot on the end of a stick and put it just out of reach of the donkey... and that donkey just keeps walking forward hoping that the next step will bring him to the carrot... and sadly, he will never reach it...

I do not beleive that we need to become techno-phobes and run from technology, but I agree with Stephanie that we really need to evaluate technologies role in our lives, and how much it has seemed to enslave/captivated us. It is my personal opinion that people should not be allowed to use a technology they do not understand, or even more so, that they should not use technology to do work they could not do independently of that technology. (For example... I don't think an engineer should be allowed to use a CAD program until they can do it by hand first... then the CAD would be a tool to help them... not something they are dependent on.)

The problem is that more and more people are getting sucked into the idea of the magic carrot, or that if they work hard enough they can finally relax in that "garden", and they eventually become obsesed with it. And the harder they work the further they seem to get from it, and yet it always seems just one step away (Just one more gadget, a few more payments, 2 more classes, and some therapy, and I'll be set...). I think this is a subliminal thing, very few people ever stop to consider it, and wonder... Hey I've been chasing this carrot for 5 years now... why have I not gotten any closer to it? This technology envelopes every aspect of thier lives to make things "easier" or "more entertaining" while never actually satisfying. BECAUSE TECHNOLOGY CANNOT REPLACE GOD, BRING US CLOSER TO THE GARDEN, OR FREE US FROM THE CURSE.

I think the closer we become to letting technology take us to the "garden" (without God) the more disjointed, disfunctional, and generally screwed up our societies will become because we have then become more separate from the consequences of living a real world (Created by a Just / Holy / Merciful God) The philosophy will be more and more like this "Heck we can almost escape God's curse... what do I care about consequences from anything else?"

Sorry for the length of this post, I found this topic has many more pages that could be input here, but that is what I think about in reply / support of your post. (I never knew I had such an opinion on the topic till I started to write this post)

THE FALLEN

See the fallen stones
See the fallen men
Turn to hear the sound
Of thuner as it rolls
They turn the world around
Around into the past
Laughing as it burns
Into the Aftermath

Hear the angels sing
Hear the voices pray
Help me if you can
Help me find my way
To this promised land
I'm lost and gone astray
I've wandered from the path
In the Aftermath

All the children fear
All the world can do
Before they're ever grown
All they've ever seen
All they've ever known
All they ever ask
Is love me I'm alone
In the Aftermath

Speak the words you hear
Say the words you know
Help your fellow man
Help your fellow soul
Save the ones you can
Before the sting of death
The reaper and the wrath
Before the Aftermath


clear

Note: All mispellings and gramatical mistakes aare mistakes.

Hello Stephanie,

I enjoy music: I write songs and poetry.
Some of the contemporary melodies are ones that stay with me. The lyrics seem to always have happy up-beat words and some touch my heart. Some kind of leave something out about God; however they sell.

I write the songs that I feel, and selling them is not why I write them. I don't think there would be a venue. Where would you sell a song like this if you wanted to?

THE LION (Hosea 11:9-10)

"Go tell the soldiers on the wall
Go tell the keeper of the gate
The house you built is gonna fall
This time no one will escape.

Go tell them The King is commin in
He'll reign as Christ He's Lord of all
He's the Lion of the Tribe of Judah
And this time the Lion's gonna roar..."

Go tell the man who won't repent
Go tell the girl who want's to wait
Prepare yourselves to see the end
It's already much too late.

And tell them the King is commin in..."


We will and I will sing praises to God in great joy and victory. We will dance and sing and fill the isles with laughter. We are His Bride and the wedding is at hand.
I wrote a song about that too. It's a much happier one.

I also keep in mind that God is not willing that any should perish. The eternity of the lost is enough to make me very sober. We will be standing there on the judgment day. We will see some of those who we knew, and failed to warn, being being cast into the fire. They may recognize us as well.

I read your article with interest. I don't know what to make of modern Christian music. The entertainment, the show business, the money, commercialism, the popularity. Young people go and flock there, they raise their hands, feel like they are in worship when they may really be in some kind of happy, hippy 60's euphoria.

They might be selling another Jesus. There are two things about God that are extreemly hard for any of us to understand: number one is His love and number two is His wrath.

Today's Christian music seems to lack some of the rest of God's personality. But I really don't know what to make of my own. God help me to think the best--God bless our Christian youth. May they never stumble. God bless our musicians. God, show us the Strait Gate.

Bob

"Comfort the saints and warn the wicked"

Are there any home churches that you know of in the Cape Coral/ Ft. Myers area?

Searching for true fellowship,

Marc

My Daddy has called me to retreat with Him, as my children (5,6,and 9yrs.) were asked to spend 3 summer weeks with my parents. The external quietness is so therepuetic. I can hear God in full thought and attention! This is a unique time, and I agree that there are quiet places He carves out with me even in the midst of busyness. By His grace He often breaks through to my concience from the innermost part of my heart to commune with Him even in the course of a packed day. I do long for more purposeful time with Him though, and even to communicate my appreciation and adoration for Him, my Shepherd, my Lord, my Husband, my Friend. I regret how often I let my day control me, and then only having a few measley leftovers of concienceness to crawl to Him with. As Kay mentioned, I too love to walk and talk to him about everything on my mind, and to go on dates with Him, reading and listening for His voice. I'm blessed to have discovered this site and to meet so many 'kindred spirits' after our Daddys heart! Thanks, all of you for sharing glimpses of your relationship with Him. It encourages and refreshes me.
I am believing that God will fan the flame of desire for Him in His new house church in Conroe, TX that our family is a part of. Each of us is caught up in our own unique trappings connected to the rat race of the world and have little realization at this point of how God can free us of it. Pray for us!

My Daddy has called me to retreat with Him, as my children (5,6,and 9yrs.) were asked to spend 3 summer weeks with my parents. The external quietness is so therepuetic. I can hear God in full thought and attention! This is a unique time, and I agree that there are quiet places He carves out with me even in the midst of busyness. By His grace He often breaks through to my concience from the innermost part of my heart to commune with Him even in the course of a packed day. I do long for more purposeful time with Him though, and even to communicate my appreciation and adoration for Him, my Shepherd, my Lord, my Husband, my Friend. I regret how often I let my day control me, and then only having a few measley leftovers of concienceness to crawl to Him with. As Kay mentioned, I too love to walk and talk to him about everything on my mind, and to go on dates with Him, reading and listening for His voice. I'm blessed to have discovered this site and to meet so many 'kindred spirits' after our Daddys heart! Thanks, all of you for sharing glimpses of your relationship with Him. It encourages and refreshes me.
I am believing that God will fan the flame of desire for Him in His new house church in Conroe, TX that our family is a part of. Each of us is caught up in our own unique trappings connected to the rat race of the world and have little realization at this point of how God can free us of it. Pray for us!

Many times my best retreat is when I turn out the light to go to sleep and there are no more impulses or voices telling me to get up, and no more energy if they did, then He and I have long talks about everything I want to tell Him, and He has my attention. Also I like to go walking with Him and sometimes go on a date out to eat with Him. Its a peaceful get-away time.
In Christ, Kay

Thanks for the comments, Chris.

Why do you think the Church has opted for professionalism instead of love? I can totally understand how mainstream music could get sidetracked into using the creative gifts for solely monetary gain, but why in the Church?

The people of God -- above all, it would seem -- must realize that the talents and inspiration to create emanates from the Creator, yes?

I hope it does not seem that I am saying no one should charge for anything "creative" here. Not so. I am, however, trying to figure out why there is such a press -- a total drivenness -- toward professionalism. To my mind, professionalism is not the need, rather it is the excellence of purity of heart that makes music "good." This is not to say that "anything goes," -- rather that I think the Church needs some readjustment in the use and thinking about music and expression of the arts, in general.

I'm also thinking about the word, "amateur." It is the opposite of professional, isn't it? Our language thinks of it mainly as someone who is dabbler, dilettante, potterer, putterer, but that is rather far from the root of the word. The root is "love."

So, ultimately an amateur is someone who does something, not for "nothing," but ....for love. Why, then, are so many people so concerned about avoiding this status? Why is it demeaning? I think it is wrapped up with self-esteem and identity.

Personally, I'd rather be known as someone who does what I do for love's sake than for the love of money. Where does money getcha anyway? :-)

When my husband and I first began working with RADIANCE (our wedding band) over 20 years ago, all of a sudden I became a professional. (He already was! :-) The performances were still me, my voice, my style, but now -- intead of just singing in coffeehouses, etc,-- I was getting paid "big bucks" to sing a few hours every Saturday night. I stepped over into the land of "professionalism," but that didn't make me a better singer or cause me to love music any more than I already did. All it did was help pay the bills, quite frankly.

I don't know. I'm just rambling here now. It just seems that there is so much hype around the creative arts and it's all because people think "celebrity" is so cool. It's not. It steals privacy and adds an illusional sense of worth to one's life, emphasizing personna rather than true being.

I guess I'm just an idealist.

There is fundamental truth here, and it's something we desperately need to grasp and wrestle with. Everything Father brings to the party is abundant life, everything we bring to the party is death. This is true for music, and it's true for every aspect of our lives.

The church is what He has made it, but it's also what we have made it. So often we feel the need for a professional touch in music or preaching or management (just three examples). We think professional is better, more polished, more saleable, more perfect.

But the truth is that the Almighty is not a professional - he wasn't trained for the job, he doesn't do it for money, and he spends no time polishing his performance. The church is not an organisation, it is a family. The fact that he is our Father should be a strong clue here! Do families do it for the money? Do brothers and sisters need training for the job? (The answer is probably 'Yes', but not in any professional sense!) Surely families do it for love.

If we want to see life in the church we must put our energy into loving, into getting closer to the head (Christ) and closer to one another. And we need to understand that this will leave very little room for the professional approach. That's not to say we may not do things well, just that we need to inspect our hearts and understand clearly why we do things at all.

Everything I do must be first for him, and secondly for my brothers and my sisters - in music and in all things. Then life will become daily more abundant.

The search for a quiet place ....

How I personally long for it. I try and take a 24 hour silent retreat at a local retreat center every three months to keep my sanity.

But the quiet in everyday life I am lousy at finding and keeping. Quiet is an interior state of the heart that I cannot attain.

Peace
Beth

It amazes me. People work at frantic jobs so they can make more money to buy the devices that make them accessible "anytime" to type "A" employers who live for their work (and think you should too).

I'm really dating myself here, but I can remember a time when calling someone at dinner was the ultimate of rude and calling them at home after 9 or 10 p.m. was unthinkable (unless you were phoning from the Emergency room).

Now, people call and don't even bother with "Did I catch you at a bad time?" No.

Someone called my house last night to speak to a guest who'd turned off her cell phone. Was it an emergency? No. Was at least important? No. The majority of the call revolved around my guest's "selfishness" in turning off her cell phone at 8 p.m. Go figure.

Millions of Americans have become obsessed with wealth and beauty . . . they have smooth skin and all the outward signs of affluence you can imagine . . . and they are empty.

What I consider a byproduct of this madness is the new "reality" shows on television. We've been listening to people's private conversations while they walk through the mall or sit in the next booth in a restaurant. That has somehow degenerated to the right to observe the private lives of others as they devour each other to climb to some higher echelon of wealth or status. It's sick really.

Steph is right. Somehow, our "servants" (timesaving gadgets) have become our masters. We need to start a revolution and just say "no."

terry

It's true isn't it! It's all so true! Yet just a hundred years ago, village life in the UK was so different. For all the things they lacked in modern medicine, helpful appliances, instantly available power, water, and communication, those people had one big advantage over life today. And what was that thing? Community.

I suppose it was the same in every country around the world. People lived in community. They all knew the other people in the village, they helped one another when there were problems, and they sat and chatted in the evening when darkness prevented further labour in the workshop, kitchen, or farm. Everybody felt part of the community, everyone had a role, everyone depended on the others doing their bit.

And when they met in the street or in the field they would always nod, stop awhile and check up on things. Or just pass a few minutes with a joke and a friendly chat. They were rarely in a hurry, most didn't have a watch. Midday meant the middle part of the day, not 12:00 o'clock sharp. They were a community.

Where did we go wrong? Is it impossible to have our modern conveniences and our mobile phones and still live as part of a community?

You've really set me thinking with this blog. More like this please!