You might be getting The Pour Over into your inbox each day as I do. As I read one of the highlighted articles, Why are cafes, restaurants, and even towns banning influences? I thought of two things: A popular video game and the Church.
The [Galactic Civ] video game action arena is space and utilizes exploring with several different tactics. One is cultural expansion deploying techniques for taking over the galaxy using mods to influence other traveling species with your culture and therefore "quietly" take over the galaxy and win the game. You could also win by buying up all of the other planets (economic takeover--think China?), or by hostile takeovers and warfare (think Russia?). I like to use the cultural takeover mostly these days.
The article lists the reasons for the ban, one is logistical (small-town shops cannot handle triple+ visitors due to a rise in popularity resulting in more harm than good). I imagined a small church of older people spiking due to a popular preacher visiting and having no nursery. That'd be bad. Not just for the weeks the speaker was in town, but the 'community talk' for weeks after about what the church 'didn't have' verses what it did.
The line from the article that caused me to pause and think about my church was, "Most places want sustainable customer-bases," and not a descending swarm to come in, consume, and move on. This hit me hard, but so did the next observation which spoke about places banning phones and picture-taking "in order to protect the presence of the experience for those who are there for the substance."
Protecting the presence. Should we question the use of streaming services?
I am in agreement in principle with the desire for sustainable customer-bases; I think believers call this a 'church family.' But churches might always have to deal with FOMO and YOLO of those casual subscribers who look like visitors who've been in-and-out for a decade never commiting to the base but comfortable with clocking in and out of what is supposed to be a service--an activity that is about Someone else. When did family become a buffet?
The article bemoans the trend in these locusts/influencers who have "a sense of misplaced ownership over both private and public spaces." I used to think Judgment Day would be a video vignette of my life, but it could actually be much easier by just scrolling through my social media posts to see what was most important to me.
I'm not promoting banning things in church, but might we think on it for a moment? Take a personal inventory. Leave your phone at home like we did when we were kids, and college students, and first married (for those born in the 60s and 70s). It might just change your life. I'd hope at least your worship, which is all about Him and not just a post.