Green Stamps and Change

by Bob Setzer, Jr.
When I was a boy, there was such a thing as Green Stamps. When a purchase was made at a participating grocery or department store, the customer received a set of Green Stamps. If you--or most of the time, your mother--saved enough Green Stamps, the family got a really cool gift: the latest, greatest toaster, a new rooftop antenna for the TV (remember TV antennas?), or a jazzy float for the summer beach trip.

During the heyday of Green Stamps in the sixties, the rewards catalogue of the S&H Green Stamp company was one of the largest publications in the United States. But then one day I woke up and Green Stamps were gone. They just disappeared. Nobody ever told me what happened to them.

Recently, I received an email entitled “24 Things About to Become Extinct in America.” It appears Green Stamps are hardly the only fixture of twentieth century life on the endangered species list. Add the “Yellow Pages.” In an internet world where more and people “google” for information, printed “Yellow Pages” are in decline. Craigslist.org and a hundred spinoffs are killing Classified Ads, once a staple of the newspaper business. Phone landlines are dying as younger consumers “go cellular.” Digital cameras have all but made developing film a thing of the past. In a world of email, hand-written letters are becoming ever more rare and priceless.

Clearly, there is a sea change going on around us. We may not like it and many loudly complain about it, but there’s no denying it: change at the speed of light seems the only constant in the digital age.

Frankly, the rate of change is a problem for churches, especially churches like ours that value tradition. “Tradition,” said Chesterton, “is giving a vote to our ancestors.” It’s a way of valuing those who have gone before and receiving the benefit of their experience and wisdom. Further, for a faith like ours grounded in God’s revelation in history--first in the life of Israel (the Old Testament) and supremely in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus (the New Testament)--the past is always prologue in some measure to the future.

The rub comes in deciding what “traditions” are life-giving and non-negotiable (for example, Worship on the Lord’s Day) and what traditions are subject to change (for example, is 11:00 o’clock on Sunday morning the best time to worship God forever and ever, Amen?).

It’s hard to know what changes our church needs to make in order to preserve the best of our tradition while remaining responsive to a changing world. But in a world where Green Stamps have disappeared, it’s a question I’m pondering more and more.

(For March 15, 2009)