If there's a list of phrases and terms that define our election fever this 2022, one of them would be "echo chamber" which describes an environment where similar beliefs or opinions are tossed around for reinforcement purposes. No dissenting belief or opinion is entertained. 

 

Every time the term is mentioned, I get the impression it's not supposed to be a good thing, thus the admonition to get out of our echo chambers and engage those who are not of the same persuasion. As much as I understand the sentiment behind that, an echo chamber is not necessarily bad. We need to know we are not alone. We need it for our sanity and source of support. We can also find help on how to counter lies and fake news. It's the same way with church life.

 

Our local church is like an echo chamber. During these times when homosexuality has become mainstream, abortion is seen as a woman's right, and celebrity pregnancies out of wedlock are being announced with fanfare, imagine if we didn't have our church, our echo chamber, to remind us what the Bible has to say about them.

 

We also need echo chambers for evangelism. We need to know what we believe before we go out. Sometimes we know what we believe but we don't know why. We don't know how to defend. We don't send out soldiers without knowing how to carry a gun, much less shoot one. 

 

Again, echo chambers are not necessarily bad for as long as we don't stay inside and delude ourselves in thinking it's the entire universe. The same goes for the church. We don't stay inside but we go there for fellowship and go out to make disciples of all nations.