"No one goes there nowadays, it's too crowded." - Yogi Berra

I had to make a trip to a business on the south side of Phoenix this morning, an area of the city I've never been to before. I used the new GPS unit, this time with the voice switched over to "Michelle." (See last night's post.) I smiled as soon as I heard it. This voice is softer, cheerier, and talks less. The default voice - I don't remember the name but it should be something like Helga - sounds very computer-ish and announces - no, commands - everything often. When we used it Wednesday night it told me three times that I should turn right on Dysart, mispronouncing it DISSert instead of the correct DIEsart. Michelle doesn't speak as often or give street names, just pleasantly instructs re. the direction I should turn and when. (The street name appears in the upper left corner of the display.)
The Garmin Michelle is just like the real thing.
Helga's outta here!

While loading some things into the Kia prior to that trip I bumped the cell phone in the outer pocket of my cargo shorts. I must have hit a button, because I hear the muffled female voice say, "Please say a command." (Why do all electronic devices have female voices?) That happens to me too often and it ticks me off because it means I have to stop whatever I'm doing, fish the phone out of my pocket, and hit the Clear button. And then put it on Lock like I should have to begin with.
So I'm in the driveway between my car and Pam's, I hear the phone in my pocket say, "Please say a command," so I did.
"Shut up!"
I look up and there in front of me, walking her little dog down the sidewalk, is a lady looking at me with a mix of shock and disapproval. There's nobody else around.
Before there was time to explain - and was it really worth it? - she'd hustled on down the street.

I did some research today for my speaking gig in Seattle on the 5th. The area where Pathway is located grew 245% between 2000 and 2010. The median age is is 35 and almost 25% of adults have a college degree. The median household income is $73,000.
The most significant of those stats may be the growth. Ten years ago it was mostly cotton fields and now it's acre after acre of subdivisions with single family homes. The community appeared out of nowhere in less than a decade.
That makes it a laboratory for observing lots of phenomena, including the contemporary form of the local church. There aren't any mainline churches dating back 50 years, and almost no churches of any stripe with the same structures and worship forms they had ten years ago - because the vast majority of them didn't exist ten years ago.
Want to know what a contemporary church looks like? It's forms, priorities and methodologies? Come to the west valley of the Phoenix metro area.
Except for Pathway. I think we're a bit of an aberration in some key respects.