I spoke at a forum organised during the meeting of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Tasmania. I was asked to discuss 'Our Changing World' and how the church needs to adapt to culture change. I was speaking in the main church hall of a Presbyterian Church which has stained glass windows and organ pipes and pews.
At one point I was suggesting that it takes major adjustments for in order to make room for new people in church: we have so many cultural and institutional barriers we aren't even aware of. I said that it may require churches to close down all their programs and structures and set them up afresh.
Now as I was saying this, I used various metaphors including: "We may just need to re-install Windows".
It turned out later that I caused offence, because some of my audience thought that I meant, remove the stained glass windows in their church building and re-install new windows.
Ironic Cross Cultural Clash
