The Parson's Pen Dr. Wallace Wheeles, Senior Pastor Time Change (March 11, 2013)

Did you sleep through the time change? Oh, I don't mean the Daylight Saving time change or do I. I slept through that one, myself and lost an hour. One church, I read of, agreed with all their members not to change their clocks until 2:00 PM on Sunday. Everything around their church was the same. They decided it would be better to lose an hour in the middle of the day rather than a good night's sleep. Not a bad idea. Some folks get ill when they lose an hour of sleep, presently company excluded.

The Time Change, I was wondering about you and me sleeping through, is the changing times. This influx of technology is overwhelming and sometimes I feel like I have slept through a generation of change. Today I was talking to a pastor about how he handles visitors to his church service. He informed me that he Skypes with them. That is he sits in front of his computer with a web cam and they in front of their computer in front of their web cam and have a visit. He said it works for his church.

I read of a doctor on another continent performing surgery, which was his specialty, via the web and a robotic arm. The hospital team was in the room with the patient and the doctor at a remote location doing the surgery. The surgery was a success, saving the doctor hours on a plane and thousands of dollars.

In church folks will pull out I-phones when I announce a scripture passage. They can pull up several versions of the Bible and even commentaries. They can take notes on the sermon and send those notes to friends in all parts of the world before I can get to the back door after the benediction.

The times, they are a changing, ready or not. The great thing about all the changes is that we can change in the church, styles of worship, delivery of messages via the screens, the power points, the graphics, et al. Yet, the message is still one of love and that never changes. Love God and love neighbor.

As long as we keep that message uppermost in our worship, fellowship, study and missions we will be relevant no matter the technology advancement. Our Sunday morning services are on the church website and I-tunes. Chris has copies of the 8:30 message copied and on the information desk in the Narthex by 10:30 each Sunday. Wow! What a day to be a part of a church with a message from God! KUMC is such a church. Check us out on the web and other places in cyberspace. If we are not there now, we will be soon. But until then, come see us. We hang out at 1801 Ben King Rd. in Kennesaw, Ga.

Wallace Wheeles
Senior Pastor