The More Things Change

Five years ago, I referred in a sermon to the “Beloit College Mindset List.” Each August for the past eleven years, Beloit College Here are things about the college freshman of 2008-2009 that you have to know to understand about their world. The list reminds us that people can live in the same neighborhood and not be from the same planet. I have abbreviated the list below for the sake of space… and because I didn’t know what in the world some were about! You can see the whole list here. The list really has changed in five years... because the world continues to change.

• Harry Potter could be a classmate, playing on their Quidditch team.
• Since they were in diapers, karaoke machines have been annoying people at parties.
• Coke and Pepsi have always used recycled plastic bottles.
• Gas stations have never fixed flats, but most serve cappuccino.
• Electronic filing of tax returns has always been an option.
• Girls in head scarves have always been part of the school fashion scene.
• Universal Studios has always offered an alternative to Mickey in Orlando.
• Grandma has always had wheels on her walker.
• WWW has never stood for World Wide Wrestling.
• The Warsaw Pact is as hazy for them as the League of Nations was for their parents.
• Clarence Thomas has always sat on the Supreme Court.
• Schools have always been concerned about multiculturalism.
• Wayne Newton has never had a mustache.
• IBM has never made typewriters.
• There has always been Pearl Jam.
• The Tonight Show has always been hosted by Jay Leno and started at 11:35 EST.
• They may have been given a Nintendo Game Boy to play with in the crib.
• Authorities have always been building a wall along the Mexican border.
• Lenin’s name has never been on a major city in Russia.
• Balsamic vinegar has always been available in the U.S.
• Macaulay Culkin has always been Home Alone.
• Caller ID has always been available on phones.
• Green Bay Packers (almost) always had the same starting quarterback.
• They never heard an attendant ask “Want me to check under the hood?”
• Iced tea has always come in cans and bottles.
• Soft drink refills have always been free.
• Windows 3.0 operating system made IBM PCs user-friendly the year they were born.
• Muscovites have always been able to buy Big Macs.
• The Hubble Space Telescope has always been eavesdropping on the heavens.
• 98.6 F or otherwise has always been confirmed in the ear.

So what’s the point? First, we serve an unchanging and unchangeable God who is the same yesterday, today and forever. Second, the language and life experience of people around us are changing constantly. If we want the people around us to come to know our unchangeable God, then we must constantly change the ways we seek to relate to them. The world and the church of the 1950’s no longer exist. I think I get that. Neither do the world nor the church of the 1990’s exist. I haven’t gotten that one quite so well.