Spanish 
"Unity - Isolation and What We Must Do" - Thoughts from DA Schnabel from the 2023 Synod
So it gets back to everything that the Chief Apostle is saying that we're in our bubble. That has been, whether it's AI or social media, whatever it might be, it's also Covid, if we're going to be honest. We shut down our society for two years and we decided that staying home was okay for a while. And now businesses are trying to get back to normal, church attendance is trying to get back to normal. Let's face it, there are some who have adopted a new doctrine that “I can do church from home.” It's the Church of Participation electronic. It's a Netflix approach to their faith.
And that doesn't work on so many levels. I don't want to preach another service. It's different, by the way, if you can't, and it's different to the Lord and it's different for those souls. I love when people come up with the exception first, right? No, we're dealing with those who could and aren't and they have adopted this new kind of bubble. It's nice. “I don't have to deal with my brother and sisters.” For some of us, that sounds actually pretty nice to some. But the Lord was always very clear about His church. About where two or three are gathered in His name. He wants us to worship together. Actually, if you see all the things that we're going to be talking about, all have a cultural human connection piece to it, all of them. It's the cultural part of what we're going to try to hammer home here. And so, we are in a world of isolation. Did you hear that Japan and the UK have both commissioned a Minister of Loneliness? Have you heard this?
But what scientists are starting to figure out, and what the health professionals are understanding is, that loneliness actually is rampant. We have more connection than ever before and we're lonelier than ever before. And it's very easy to isolate. And we do it all the time. We don't have to go out to eat anymore. We don't have to go to the movies anymore. Now we go to Netflix. We don't have to go to the store anymore, we have Amazon. We have all these things that have allowed us to do everything from home. We have phones as a distraction.
That's what we're living in. That's what we're living in. And so, to kind of take this all home, what must we do? We must do our mission. We must curate our church that's inspired by the Holy Spirit with cultural touchpoints and start to insist upon it. Again, caring for the soul, not tearing the tares out and taking a bunch of wheat in our hands. Also very, very carefully. But we are the angels at the gate. We are the angels at the gate and we have to do something about it. Otherwise, this is how you might say, “well, there's nothing we can do about the unity.” Yes, there is. Yes, there is.