Seth Godin's article on Infinity

From Seth Godin's Blog

Getting used to infinity
I have a new thing to collect.
I collect pictures of crowds stunned by a baseball bat heading their way. I don't collect photos where anyone is injured, just the ones where people are all weirded out.
This, of course, is a crazy thing to collect, but the fascinating thing is that it's possible at all. All of us grew up in a world of content scarcity, and now we live in a world of content infinity.
That means, for example, that finding a rare song is essentially banal. There are no rare songs (except on LP). It means that finding a photo of what you're looking for isn't the hard part, it's deciding what to look for in the first place.
Of course, it's not just photos or music. It's service providers, freelancers, employees, charitable tools, places to live, vacation spots, dogs to adopt, people to date.
If you find a great baseball bat flying in the stands photo, I'm hoping you'll send me one. In the meantime, don't be afraid of infinity. There's a lot of it going around.



Think about this in the realm of the church.

Used to be that there was nothing to do on Sunday morning but to go to church if you wanted to be social. Then the Blue Law's ended, Malls opened, and people could shop. First it was only after 12 noon. Now they open before 12.

Now there are many churches and people move to the church where they feel comfortable, there is a buzz, they like the pastor or music, good program for families, etc. In fact, Sarah Palin, an evangelical attends several churches. This is going to be the norm in the future where people will not be committed to a church but be part of various churches. That means leadership will be done more by staff who are committed to a paycheck and less by laypeople. It also means that churches to maintain will have to work hard to keep helping the consumer.

Do church leaders need to meet the needs, desires, and expectations of people even if those people are not committed to the vision and mission of the church?
What does this new way of being a Christian in American mean for the church and how do we adapt?