The Times, They Are a’Changing
About the revolution, George Barna states – “New scenarios do not mean mayhem and dissipation. In this case they represent a new day in which the Church can truly be the Church – different from what we know today, but more responsive to and reflective of God.”
Change is inevitable, and change usually presents itself when the status quo becomes ineffective. The way we do church now may have been effective several decades ago (I’m speaking in general terms here), but those generations have come and are gradually going away. We must not let our traditions become our church or our god, as the case may be. This puts our focus in the wrong place and hinders any significant presence of the Holy Spirit.
People, from the beginning of time, have sought for something real and powerful to give life meaning and purpose. The church is just another “club” without that significant presence; there is nothing real or powerful to offer others.
While there is nothing wrong with traditional church practices in and of themselves. It is that committment to the traditional that causes the problem. (Of course, a commitment to being non-traditonal can be just as bad.) The Apostle Paul changed his approach to presenting the gospel from town to town whenever needed. Had some of our traditionalists been around when he addressed the Areopagus in Athens (Acts 17), “Blasphemy!” would have probably been shouted a few times. The same attitude stoned him and ran him out of other towns; ironically, the same attitude Paul had before his conversion. Paul knew he had to approach different cultures with varying methods. Likewise, different generations, coupled with the effect technology has on our culture, require an ever-changing approach.
from my notebook 