Have you heard of the new thing in cell phones for teenagers?  Most schools have rules regulating the use of cell phones so students have found an uber creative way around these restrictions! … It is the Mosquito tone (http://www.freemosquitoringtones.org/). 

You see, the frequency is at a range so high that only people under 25-30 years of age are able to physically hear it. Here is the science lesson: we all have microscopic hairs in our inner ears that respond to sound waves and communicate those movements to the auditory nerve … as we get older, those hairs are less and less sensitive.  The highest note on a piano is 4 kilohertz (KHz); people over 25 years old cannot hear above 16 KHz; the mosquito tone rings in at 17 KHz!

Here is what happened … engineers in Britain first created the mosquito tone as a tool to be used against teenagers.  They created it to annoy loitering teenagers and drive them away from businesses in favor of (older) paying customers.  In a strange turn of events, it is teenagers who are now using that very ring tone designed to work against them in their favor … pretty resourceful, I’d say!

We have a truly GREAT COMMISSION from the Lord Jesus himself to go throughout the world making disciples by:

Going to them with the gospel

Teaching them to know and obey Jesus and

Baptizing them into the church body 

Our effectiveness as God’s people is declining because our methods have not kept pace with the rapidly changing cultural soup in which we live … when slapped with this reality, we typically decide we must “try harder” at getting the things that worked 25+ years ago to work again.  The good news is that we are all on the same team and need to make sure we stay in love with Jesus instead of a favorite method for serving Him (whether that be Sunday School, Bus Ministry, Vacation Bible School, Visitation, or  place the name of  your favorite program here).

We would be set free to think outside the box, to join God where He is at work (rather than where He was at work), to see the Spirit of God do here what the Father has planned there in heaven!  We spend more time planning for career advancement than for reaching the lost!

Corporations are big on identifying and communicating a “Mission Statement” to their employees.  We don’t need any big search to discover ours as a church … God has made it clear from the beginning what He is up to and what He expects His followers to go after.  Our problem is that we get confused or lose focus and start worrying about ministry forms rather than for more effective ways to fulfill our mission.

So let’s hear it for the cell phone wielding teenagers! May we be as resourceful as we serve the Lord … there is a lot more at stake than a phone call.

Blessings,

Paul