change
…and no, I ain’t talking about Obama. I’m talking about life. The old cliche’ is that nothing is constant in the world except change. I’ve found so much truth in that. The problem is that different people view change in different ways. Some are threatened by it, while others are excited at the idea of something new. As a church leader I’ve had to come to terms with how this translates into my ministry mindset. Over the past decade the church culture has undergone some pretty radical changes. The “popular” thing to do was to switch our methodology to a more culturally relevant style of worship experience. Lights, sound, guitars, media, and rock n’ roll have all crept in to our once “safe” method of doing church. This excited me. I no longer had to dread going to church because now it appealed to me. It appealed to my senses and my preferences. And at the time, the culture (for the most part) embraced this change. Mega-churches now feature a concert-like atmosphere paired with topical talks aimed to aid us in our everyday life. I dig it. Now we’re at a cultural crossroads. 10 years ago people were ok with surface-level Christianity because there was a hope of future discipleship. The problem is that the discipleship never came. The process stopped at a killer Sunday experience. Yes, some people got it. Some people picked up the fork themselves and began to be fed not only on Sundays but all through the week. But still others were left wondering, “is this it?” I’ve been in a discipleship class where we’ve been discussing Francis Chan’s book “Crazy Love.” Last night the statement was made that Americanized Christianity is too safe. As I thought about it I realized the truth in that assumption. Most churches don’t preach that Christianity leads to radical life-change. Yet, in most other countries becoming a Christian means becoming an outlaw. It means losing your friends, family, job, social status, etc… the list goes on. Jesus said in Luke chapter 14 that anyone who is not willing to give up EVERYTHING can not truly be His disciple. Our next church-cultural change?I pray that it involves the Church becoming known by its fruits and by the fact that our lives are radically different than that of the worldly culture. Rock n’ roll and lights help, but becoming a new-creation was Jesus’ message, therefore it should be ours as well.
