I was chatting with someone today about Tipp-Ex correction fluid. The arrival of word processing on computers and the improved quality of personal printers must surely have had an impact on the sales of correction fluid. If I make a mistake typing I just delete and replace it with the correct word, and with automated spelling correction the chances of having a speeling erorr that needs correcting on the paper are reduced further.
When I was little music was either provided on vinyl records or cassette tapes. Various alternatives tried to take a part of the market share (anyone remember Mini Discs?) but CDs really put the boot in. And then streaming services and MP3 players changed the rules again. Similarly video cassettes have been replaced by DVDs and then digital streaming services.
Fax machines were important pieces of office equipment for many years, but have now almost completely disappeared with the advent of email and other digital communication.
Do you remember when you used to have a telephone that was secured to the wall by a cord and if you weren’t in you didn’t know if anyone had called? If you were out and wanted to make a phone call you had to find a phone box (and hope nobody had used it as a public toilet). Cordless phones developed to allow us walk to around our homes with the handset, and answering machines meant people could leave messages for us, but they’ve all become obsolete with the ubiquity of mobile phones. We don’t have a landline at all at home.
Yes, some old tech gets a (nostalgic) renaissance. Vinyl records have made a comeback. Faxes are still used in some places where confidentiality is important and it’s better to have a paper copy than an electronic one that could be intercepted or shared more widely. I have even seen old fashioned phone handsets that you plug into your mobile phone.
I wonder what tech that is currently indispensable to us will be obsolete in a few years? Internal combustion engines in vehicles are being phased out in favour of electric ones (or perhaps we’ll go back to horse-drawn vehicles as an environmentally favourable alternative).
When I started training to be a Baptist Minister (1990 – yes I know I don’t look that old!”) I had a naive understanding of theology but I was convinced of its rightness. To be honest, it was a theological framework I had been taught by others and I had accepted unquestioningly because I trusted and honoured those who had taught me. One of the most unsettling, yet significant, things that happened at the Bible College was that they gently, but firmly, dismantled my theology. For a while I didn’t know what I believed. But they also gave me the tools and encouragement to rebuild what I believed based on a more considered approach, based on a desire to read the Bible more honestly, and based on a more realistic awareness of life.
I’ve been continuing that process ever since. There are things I believed when I entered Bible College that I shudder about now. Things about which I would have been dogmatic that I now consider obsolete. It’s not because God has changed, or the Bible has changed, or I have abandoned my faith. If anything my faith feels more secure – anchored in the person and teaching of Jesus.
We still make mistakes that need correcting, but now we no longer need to use correction fluid to correct them.
We still listen to music, but the medium we use to deliver it to our ears is different.
We still share information, but in new, faster ways.
We still talk on phones, but now we can do it anywhere we have a reception (and can annoy fellow passengers on trains by using a phrase we never used to on the phone (loudly): “I’m on the train!”).
We still do the same things, but the way we do them has developed and transitioned in new ways.
The fundamental things I believe are the same, but the way I understand them and apply them are different today. It’s why I delight in being the minister of Mutley Baptist Church – it’s not a perfect church (none ever is) but it is a place and a people who express our faith in Jesus in a lovingly inclusive way. This weekend we are celebrating our second ‘Weekend of Thankfulness’ to express our gratitude to God for all that goes on on our premises and through our people. It’s an exciting, joyful, inspiring weekend that is built on our shared conviction that Jesus loves everyone and calls us to love them too. If you’re in the area pop in and see us!
Be blessed, be a blessing
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