Ecc 3:1,6.
For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. A time to keep and a time to throw away. (NLT)
We’re all familiar with the items above: Penny Farthing, Iron, Phone; all 3 could be used in society today. There’s only one problem. The world has moved on and we have far more modern versions of each item. In fact, if I came to your home and your transport was a Penny Farthing, you ironed clothes with this iron and spoke to people over this phone; we would all be a little embarrassed.
And if I told you these were now old fashioned, you would be hurt and wounded by my words. Why is this? It’s because we haven’t moved on with the changing world around us.
Society is always changing; and it’s not that we have to be up to the minute with all the latest gadgets, clothes and houses, but we do have to adapt to changing times otherwise we become what’s called, ‘an anachronism’; which means, ‘A person or thing that is chronologically out of place’. We become outdated and old fashioned.
We all laugh when we look at the gadgets above and yet many of us Christians and Churches have become anachronisms without realising it; and we’ve become like this because we see every new invention or fashion as being ‘worldly’ or ‘self indulgent’ or a ‘moral attack against Godly values’. Not realising that God put the creative spark in mankind for such a reason.
We can embrace the new by adapting it to suit our needs. We can be fashionable without being sexualised. We can use technology without becoming addicted to it. We can be modern without being consumed by materialism.
God has put us in the driving seat by giving us the fruit of self control. If we can’t adapt to changing times, it’s us who are in the wrong, not society. We are saying we are too weak to master the changes.
Failure to embrace the new will always make us irrelevant to society and we’ll lose the ability to connect with the Gospel. So let’s choose to open up and learn from the Churches who are pioneering a new way forward for the Gospel of the Kingdom.
These kind of Churches are irreligious, modern, technological and mobile without losing the essence of relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ; and they are attracting people from all walks of life, from fashion, media, entertainment, politics, sport and business.
A new day is dawning for the Church and God wants to include all of us. He wants a multi-generational Church that appeals to all sections of society.
Meditation Point: Father, help me like a snake, discard my old skin. Help me to embrace the new. Help me to see it is the fear of change that I need to deal with.
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