CHURCH AND THE CHANGING TIMES

Tuesday, October 01, 2013

CHURCH (C) IN THE SERIES CLIF FROM A TO Z

The little church in Medicine Park, Oklahoma needed a preacher. The total membership was eleven. Ten women and one man. They met in a little cobblestone school building.

My home church was eighteen miles away with a membership around two hundred. Two hundred was considered a large congregation in the 1950's. They agreed to pay me the same small salary I was making for working at a grocery store. I was a junior in high school. I preached for the little church until I left to go to college at Abilene Christian in Abilene, Texas. The congregation had grown to thirty-five members.

In 1957 I graduated from college and moved to California to preach full-time.

Over the years I have watched the church grow in number and change. Today it is not uncommon for a church to meet in a huge indoor stadium type building and have thousands in attendance.

More and more churches are going away from anything that looks religious in order to appeal to those who are not comfortable with religion. The appearance of the building, the music, the clothes the preacher and the church members wear, the Starbucks coffee, the food court---all represent a modern, contemporary, secular look.

I don't object to this as a way to reach the un-churched in a society that is turning away from religion.

I do object if the Scriptures are not preached and not taken seriously. But that is not the theme of this post.

Do I think that every church needs to change to look like this? Absolutely not!

Every church doesn't need to be a mega-church. If a church is growing and ministering to the members and the community it is showing the heart of God. That is good. That's very good.

I object strongly to tearing out pews, the communion table, the baptistery and anything else just because it represents religion. Elderly members need  a church to live and die in that they have identified with all their lives.

Some things about the church need to change. But not everything!

Is there a place for new music and a new appearance for the church? Yes!

Is there a place for older, traditional things of the church? Yes!

LONG LIVE THE CHURCH!

"...I WILL BUILD MY CHURCH, AND ALL THE POWERS OF HELL WILL NOT CONQUER IT."  Matt. 16:18