Apple and the Church

A few days ago Bill Gates launched Vista by calling the next ten years The Digital Decade… a couple of days later, the world stood still whilst Reverend Steve Jobs announced the iPhone, and ushered in The Fourth Digital Decade.

So what does this have to do with the church? Keep reading.

Steve Jobs and Apple do it time and time again. They put on a flashy presentation, and then deliver a product that isn’t going to be available until a future date. In relation to the iPhone, it hasn’t even got FCC approval yet.

But what happens next? Apple’s fan boys go crazy, shoutin’ an a holloerin’ raising their hands an a calappin’, just like any Sunday morning in a big Pentecostal church.

And then there are the sane people. They suddenly realise that there’s something missing in their lives, step forward and become converts.

It happens every time. People sign up, put money down, get in line and wait for a product that isn’t even available yet.

It’s kinda like what the church does, flashy sermons designed to get people to sign up for a product that they can’t get until after they die.

And it’s not just the Pentecostal churches that use flashy presentations, the church has done it for eons, even the so called traditional church uses visual techniques to get people signed up – the ornate buildings, purple robes, shiny golden ornaments…

The trouble is, as any sane Apple fan boy will tell you, just converting to Apple isn’t enough, you expect to be wowed over and over again, with new products and presentations.

Where does it end? And what happens if Apple suddenly releases a boring product, with realistic expectations? Everyone would loose faith.

So what’s the solution? I don’t have one; I just come up with outrageous claims and cynical comparisons. Maybe it’s all about how Christians live their lives, and to be honest, I could do with improving mine.

And that my friend is what I’m going to look at this year.