Our Vintage Faith - Pastor's Column June 2022
When I was a young fella, my grandparents still had a lot of things around their home now considered old and vintage. Growing up there, I was accustomed to things like rotary phones and black and white televisions with rabbit ear antennae and knobs for changing the channel. To this day, I still use my granddad’s old multimeter in which you have to set the dial and read the needle on the scale. But one of my favorite vintage things from both my grandparent’s and parent’s homes was the record player. I still listen to records on the same player that belonged to my grandparents. There is something about that sound that takes you back. I love the unmistakable crackle of the needle touching the spinning vinyl before the room is flooded with the sound of music.
I still frequent a record store in Graham and browse old albums in consignment shops. I recently bought a new record player just for my office so that I can spin records while working on sermons and Bible studies. Yes, I have a ton of CDs that I have collected from the early 90s through today. But there is something precious in the vintage vinyl record experience. Perhaps it is a feeling of nostalgia that simply is not replicated by modern technology.
It is amazing, though, to think how far technology has come, especially in the couple decades. When we cut a vinyl record, surely we never imagined a world where people could stream endless amounts of songs on the internet without ever purchasing a physical copy of the music. When I sat in my grandparent’s hallway dialing my friends on a rotary phone, I never imagined having a so-called “smart” pone in my pocket everywhere I go. My own son has grown up in a world that has always had such a thing. I wonder what unfathomable advancements he will see in his lifetime. One thing I know, though, is that he will know about the wonder of vintage things like vinyl records and record stores. That’s sort of like “passing on the faith” for me. And that realization brings me at last to the point.
It seems that human beings are always innovating; always looking to that next invention. “Well, the last model was good, but I think we can do it better.” There is always the next technological advancement declaring that it will make life simpler (whether it actually does or not can be debated). We can usually expect ongoing advancements in health care and medicine. We look the future of renewable sources of energy and transportation. We are always innovating.
But there is one area in which no innovation is needed: our faith and the Gospel. These are vintage, well-aged, and proven. They function as well as ever. Hearing that Christ has died and risen for us and for our salvation is like that familiar crackle of the needle on your favorite vintage record. We often hear that we need to make the Gospel relevant for the modern age, if we can first figure out what that is supposed to mean. Worship resources sometimes suggest all sorts of novel things to do this. But in doing so, we risk scratching the record and damaging the great song of love our Lord is singing to us. Instead, the timeless message of the Gospel and the life of faith passed down from generation to generation in the church has the power to transform us and the world around us. No innovation needed. We rocket into the future with innovations, some of which help us, some which make simple tasks even more frustrating and convoluted, and some that may fail and not last. But our God, the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our faith in him is the same yesterday, today, and forever. We can always find there those vintage words of comfort, hope, love, healing, and salvation.