Staying Plugged In

| By Scott McClellan | Found in Communication | 9 Comments

Is there anything we take for granted more than electricity? I don’t think so.

As you flip a light switch, you assume it will work and begin planning your next move. But when switch flips and nothing happens, you come to a full stop, paralyzed by the realization that your productivity is out the window until the power comes back on. Our team is experiencing this phenomenon today thanks to the 60 mph winds currently wreaking havoc on the Dallas area.

While it’s nearly impossible to work on a magazine without power these days (I’ve taken refuge in a nearby coffee shop), I’m glad reformers such as Martin Luther managed to take advantage of the printing press before the advent of the plug. In the same way, I thought about how a power outage would take a heavy toll on the average church, despite the fact that churches did just fine for centuries without electricity. But these days without electricity on a Sunday morning, most churches would be without:

  • AC or heat, depending on the season
  • Lights
  • Projection
  • Audio
  • Electric guitars (gasp!)
  • Coffee
  • Childcare check-in
  • Electronic marquee touting service times and spiritual witticisms
  • Flat-screen TVs (in the men’s room or otherwise).

Am I leaving anything out? Could your church operate on a Sunday morning without electricity? Does our reliance on electricity bother you, even just a little bit?

  • http://tentmakin.blogspot.com Kyle P.

    I went 5 days without power last month thanks to an ice storm. Hated it. Every stinking minute of it. I have a serious addiction to electricity and I do not plan on seeking help for it anytime soon. You can read all about it on my blog. Hope you get your power back soon.

  • http://littlepastor.blogspot.com JC

    A few years ago at the church I worked at in Dallas; we lost power due to a car accident down the road. We cancelled all children’s classes, and crowded everyone (800+) into the sanctuary for some acoustic worship with the piano and guitars. (Sang hymnal-type music that everyone would know the words to…) We had a long worship, small prayers, and the obligatory offering time then dismissed. Not a terrible Sunday.

  • JFrog

    A few years ago that huge power outage that took out NY and a lot of Ontario & Quebec… We were living near Toronto, still very much in the city. Never in my life, except where I grew up – very small town, have I ever met so many neighbors in such a short time. People were having block parties, sharing meats and perishables… Good times. See, you just have to get creative, and actually go out and do something about it.

  • http://www.istockphoto.com Tiffani Barnes

    You forgot one other major component that a small church could probably overcome but would sink any medium to mega-sized church. Microphones. You can preach a sermon without video and slide presentations (shutter to think) but if your sanctuary is very large at all the pastor won’t be heard by churchgoers no matter how loud he speaks.

    Does it bother me? Of course it does (especially when the power goes out and I can’t get my e-mail), but I don’t think there is much that we can do about it. Is there?

  • http://www.derrickhenslee.blogspot.com Derrick Henslee

    A lot of Oklahoma was hit with a big ice storm a while back. We were out of power at the Tulsa campus of Lifechurch.tv. Being a video venue with a live band…in a warehouse with no windows in the auditorium…it would have been somewhat difficult to have an experience without electricity. I mean, our campus pastor could have preached, we could have done an acoustic set…but we still would have been in the dark. So, to counter this we were going to rent a generator big enough to power the entire building….yeah…$10,000 for the weekend…THANK GOD the power came back on before the weekend and all was well. Electricity good…darkness bad.

  • http://www.collidemagazine.com Scott McClellan

    Luckily our power is back on today, so I guess there will be a March/April issue of COLLIDE after all!

  • http://jpaden.livejournal.com/ Jonathan Paden

    Thinking about what we can do without electricity can really bring us back to the core of ministry.

    Nothing beats solid knowledge and wisdom, and the participation of all the voices in the crowd.

    My church wouldn’t be too bad off. Our auditorium seats about 250, so the preacher would only have to project his voice more. Our music is a cappella, and we even still have some hymnals hanging around that the people could use. So our worship music would be good to go. We might have to use wine instead of grape juice for communion, if we didn’t have refridgeration for a length of time.

    I think it would be kinda cool to have a few more candlelight services. :-)

  • http://charlesshyblosky.wordpress.com Charles

    Sometimes it takes a storm, like this one, for us to Be Still and Know…. It’s amazing to think how co-dependent we’ve become. Remember MTV’s unplugged series… that stuff was powerful…

  • http://www.sweetestframe.org Travis Penn

    Talk about crazy…I just added the Collide Blog to my Google Reader earlier this weekend and read this article. Today at church – you guessed it – the power cycled off and on about 5 or 6 times.

    The first time we were singing “How Great is Our God” with mics, electric guitars, and Easy Worship projecting the words. When the power went out we just kept singing. It was one of those aha! moments when you realize that you don’t need all of the “extras” to glorify your Maker.

    The power cycled back on at the end of the song, so we went with it. As I hit the last chord on the electric guitar the power went away again, and cycled back on again. My pedal reset to the 1 setting which is a crunchy loud distorted sound. I kind of let it ring out and then just smiled and everyone laughed.

    The power cycled back off and on again while we had our soldier who was back home from Iraq presenting his slides. He tried to show his pictures, but the power cycled off and on again about 3 times. I felt bad for this, but he kept going the whole time and he did a great job expressing his burden for kids in Iraq. In spite of the distractions, we had a wonderful service.

    One thing I did notice – he was using a laptop to review the pictures as he was telling his story, and since the laptop was running on battery he could keep going even when everyone else was in the dark. :)

    Really enjoying the blog by the way, keep it up.