Time marches on Cleaning out storage areas gives leaders a chance to marvel at the advances in technology—and mourn that filmstrips are still in the cabinets. In addition to filmstrips and a projector, Calvary


Cleaning out storage areas gives leaders a chance to marvel at the advances in technology.


Lutheran, Two Rivers, Wis., during renovation found in the church attic cassettes and vinyl LPs “that have the ‘ding’ when you’re supposed to change to the next side, Kay Richter said. Several folks said they found and threw away an


array of videos, as well as “millions of foam craſt kits,” Concordia hymnals, 10 years of vacation Bible school kits in their original boxes, John Ylvisaker’s “contempo- rary” liturgies from the 1970s, Lutheran-Episcopal dia- logues, an apron with pockets on every inch of it—filled with toys and treats, and a black and white film about Martin Luther on huge film reels. Karyn Aarthun Ervin, St. John Lutheran Church,


Riverton, Wyo., was the one who found a poker table in the storage closet: “No one knew how it got there.” Although Paul Simmons, Saron Lutheran Church in Ashland, Wis., was willing to throw out the videos he


found of “talking head lectures” from the 1970s, he said he wouldn’t throw out the felt boards. “Tey’re senti- mental favorites” and can be used “when the video stuff won’t work,” he said. One pastor said someone passing through town


“asked longingly if we still had the felt board her mother had made. My secret heartfelt thought was, ‘Oh, I hope not.’ ” St. Andrew Lutheran Church, Lake Worth, Fla.,


declared: “We could open an antique store!” Pat Radd of of Nelsonville (Wis.) Evangelical


Lutheran Church, one half of the Tomorrow River Par- ish, found spackle pots used for making egg coffee years ago. Her find resulted in a Facebook teaching moment regarding egg coffee—how to make it and how in some congregations only certain people had that job. Carla Tompson Powell, United in Faith Lutheran


Church, Chicago, said, “If books have a copyright date before my birth year I look very skeptically at them, especially if they are about ‘contemporary worship’ or youth ministry. ... If brochures have copyright dates aſter 1980 but before 2005, they better have amazing content to earn their place in the brochure rack.”


‘Do you really think I want to live this way?’ M


By Angela K. Zimmann


y son is 16. Sometimes I forget because he can banter with adults; hold his own in a variety of social settings; and has attended three high


schools in two states and two countries, finishing with outstanding grades, lovely friends and a pleasant demeanor. But my son is 16 and, in case I ever forget, his bed-


room provides the proof. Usually I just shut the door and pretend that the space doesn’t exist. But one day last week I just couldn’t take it anymore. No matter how much I tried to deny or ignore, forget or repress, I knew what was behind that door—my phenomenal son and his astonishing mess. I peeked in and saw him sitting at the computer


surrounded by school papers, college admission papers, a garbage can (or two) overflowing with empty bags of chips and laundry strewn everywhere (dirty? clean? who could tell?). And the icing on the cake: his pet chinchilla had kicked up a mess of dust, food and other unmentionables that completely covered one corner. “Seth! Tis is unbelievable …,” I started in. Before


18 www.thelutheran.org


I could gather a full head of steam, he swung around toward me. “Mom. Mom! Do you really think I want to live this


way?” For a moment I had forgotten what my son is jug-


gling right now: advanced placement classes, marching band, the school play, speech and debate—and on it goes. He was doing all he could to keep it all together, and


that didn’t include the laundry. And am I really any bet- ter for all of my lecturing and hectoring? I’m juggling, too, just hoping that I can keep it all together, keep the laundry done, the refrigerator stocked and the bills paid—and on it goes. Do you think we want to live this way? Our lives are full of clutter. Physical clutter, yes, and


mental clutter too. Are these the lives to which we are called to live as Christians? Do we really want to live this way? More importantly: Does Jesus really want us to live


this way?


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