Resistant to change

Many people know that I am like a dinosaur (as on old and obsolete) in technology, and do not yet use a smartphone. I recognize the many advantages and cool stuff you can do with smartphones, bu on my current lifestyle I really don't see a need for one.

Just for fun, I have listed all the cellphones I have owned, and they are all Nokia:


1. Nokia 6110

• Specs: link here
• Period of use: ~2000-01
• Reason to terminate: dropped it in the toilet
• Pros: first time exposed to snake game
• Cons: not water resistant

2. Nokia 8250

• Specs: link here
• Period of use: 2001-2004
• Reason to terminate: moved to Canada (it is still working!)
• Pros: blue light is so cool, specially at night, and it is small and light
• Cons: trouble with the screen (dead pixels)

 3. Nokia 8210

• Specs: link here
• Period of use: 2005-2010 (second hand from my cousin)
• Reason to terminate: I got a job
• Pros: indestructible
• Cons: cannot send text messages to more than one recipient

3a. Nokia 1208

• Specs: link here
• Period of use: 2008 Winter work term at US
• Reason to terminate: gave it to my brother
• Pros: cheap ($19 on Prepaid)
• Cons: a bit too thick

4. Nokia 5310

• Specs: link here
• Period of use: 2010-present
• Reason to terminate: N/A
• Pros: color screen!
• Cons: takes time to load contacts after reboot

I was thinking I could write a post about loyalty, but I decided to write about being resistant to change. In many ways we tend to be naturally resistant to change because it is nice to deal with what is familiar or with what is comfortable. Like living int he same apartment for the last two years have been quite nice because I am very used to the place it has become familiar enough as a "home".

On the other hand, there is also a sense of close-mindedness and pride that could impede someone from changing how he/she does things. For example, part of the reason why I don't have a smartphone could be attributed to some pride in me in wanting to rebel against the common trend as well my close-mindedness to see the smartphone has a beneficial tool. To extend the example, I came from a fairly conservative Chinese church and remembered vividly how my pastors were quite resistant when one of our worship members wanted to introduce some contemporary Christian songs into fellowship and worship service.

On my early experience serving at CCF, many of the ministries (cell groups, evangelistical meetings, committee) and methodologies to do ministry were done without much questioning (as in we do this because this is what has been done in the past until now). So a lot of these ministries become more driven by tradition rather than a vision from God.

One of the common examples is Lifesong (which is a huge drama production evangelistical meeting), which had much success in the early 2000s. But at the time when I was serving in CCF committee, it had become like "a thing" that we do every term, and people has forgotten the real reason of this event which is to evangelize our circle of friends. And when the committee (which I was part of) decided to stop having Lifesong every term, there were definitely some voices against this idea. I am not justifying that this was the correct decision (only Gold can tell), but I am voicing out that we need to open-minded in terms of ministry methodologies and re-evaluate the reasons why these ministries exist.

Sometimes change is necessarily in order to be more effective in the Kingdom work. One example is the use of the Internet to promote Christian doctrines (through online sermons, pastor's blogs, twitters, etc).

When Jesus was ministering on earth, He was doing something revolutionary which was not done before. Most religious people at that time took pride on their biblical knowledge, but looked down upon the sinners, tax collectors, prostitutes, basically people outside their religious circle. But Jesus intentionally invested time on them, setting a model of evangelism that caused much anger towards the Pharisees who were resistant to accept this change.