By action of the General Assembly, we Presbyterians have been promised a new hymnbook by the year 2014. This announcement has produced a groundswell of popular indifference to the project, setting the stage for a publishing blunder of semi-epic proportions, if what is produced turns out to be yet another paper-and-ink creation in the venerable tradition of Johannes Gutenberg. Even the prospect of a companion e-hymnal, suitable for projection on a screen or on the wall of your sanctuary, will not prevent a classic case of the wrong product at the wrong time.
Consider how far we have come since the introduction of our present blue hymnbook in 1990. Think of how many people are now getting their daily news not from a printed page but from a screen. Given the current pace of technology, it is more probable than possible that the church in 2014 will have neither books nor paper bulletins in the pews.
Nor are projected words and images a workable alternative. Most of our current worship spaces have not been designed for this purpose. Projections also create lighting and sight line problems, as well as difficulties for Presbyterians whose presbyopia* makes it hard for them to read the words.
I envision** that by 2014 when you enter the sanctuary for worship you will find in your pew a simple electronic tablet, roughly the size and thickness of a legal pad. When the On button is pressed, the Order of Worship appears on the screen. Press the Forward button, and you get the first hymn, in large print if you need it. More button pressing brings you the other hymns, the Scripture readings, and the announcements. Following worship the worship information and announcements are electronically updated instantly from the church office during the week.
This e-pad as described is the basic model, needing only On/Off, Forward and Back buttons. The upgraded model will be interactive, allowing you to enter prayer requests, sign up for the next family night supper, and give the preacher your critique of the sermon. An earphone plug will offer assistance to those who are hearing-impaired. A slot in the e-pad will also provide the solution to another problem in our increasingly plastic-oriented world: you will be able to swipe your credit card and make your offering electronically.
The publishing powers-that-be should not waste time and energy thinking of a print hymnbook with its limited usefulness and finite supply of hymns. The writing on the screen is telling us unmistakably that the post-Gutenberg era is already here.
*Actually presbyopia makes it hard to see at close range rather than at a distance, but a lot of people will still, like King Belshazzar, have trouble reading the handwriting on the wall.
**Full disclosure: I have been wrong before. I thought the copy machine would never replace the mimeograph in the production of church bulletins. We’ll see how my prediction stands up this time.
Joe McCutcheon is interim pastor of Burkeville Church in Burkeville, Va.
