Hacking Culture, Modding Tradition, Looking Beneath Skins

Over at Tall Skinny Kiwi, there's an interesting post abot the idea of "hacks and mods" - hacking and modifying technology, ideas, traditions, etc. to get something new. Seems like an idea worth pursuing in terms of how church and culture interact, and I'd like to add my two cents' worth.

"Hacking" is about getting something to do something it wasn't originally intended to do, and in fact probably something the manufacturer/ owner doesn't want it to do. It ranges from the useful speeding up of a computer's processor that will probably void your warranty, to reporgramming your cell phone to take it with you (along with your number) to a new carrier, to the illicit accessing of credit card info and identity theft.

"Mods," as best I understand them, are more cosmetic, but not entirely so. Perhaps the chip speed-up is a mod - the product still does what it was originally intended to do, but in a different way. Mods adapt an existing piece of technology, customizing it in a way that makes it work better in a specific setting, for a specific user, or for a specific task.

"Skins," on the other hand, are purely cosmetic. Want to change the look of your web browser, or media player? Download a new "skin" for it. I suppose physical "skins" would be color plates for laptops and cell phones.

All three of these ideas have use in the church's mission. The problem is, we often don't know which one to try. Sometimes, we don't even know which one we're doing.

The Church needs to hack the world's culture. We need to take it, reprogram it with the Gospel, alter it to do something that the powers of this world don't want it to do, and then use it for God's purposes. Take, for example, a Starbucks coffee shop. Its purpose: to get you to spend money. Sure, they talk about community, enjoying good coffee, relaxation, etc. But they want you to pony up. So how could the church "hack" the Starbucks meme into a way of promoting fellowship, hospitality, etc?

Similarly, we need to mod tradition. Folks, we don't need to re-invent the wheel. The Holy Spirit has been guiding the Church for about 2,000 years. But the Spirit's work was incarnated in vastly different cultures. So let's mod those traditions.

In fact, a lot of those traditions just need a new "skin." But here's the problem: so often, we think we're hacking culture and modding tradition, but what we're really doing is taking either culture OR a poor mock-up of tradition that hasn't been working for a generation, and simply slapping a slick new skin on it. Sure, it looks shiny and new, but let's look at the spiritual code and see what the thing actually does.

Now, somebody smarter than I needs to take this and run with it.

Comments

[Richard Tallent]

Great post! You got my "programmer brain" thinking and I went off on a bit of a rant (linked below)...

http://www.tallent.us/CommentView.aspx?guid=7932865d-752d-4cbd-b250-6252535af36c