"WHAT TO DO WHEN YOUR CHURCH CHANGES" BY JOE MCKEEVER---MY RESPONSE

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

This post is my response to Joe McKeever's article posted on Face Book, "What To Do When Your Church Changes." I was amazed at the many comments he received and how many different views were expressed. These comments convinced me that we will never all reach agreement on this.

I am not against change. However, I am not in favor of ALL change.

Every church that isn't striving to be a mega-church is not dying.

There is a place for, and a need for smaller churches that have a close, Christian family feel. As they grow too large for that intimate feeling they can plant a new congregation and keep growing and going.

The church does not have to tear down or remodel their traditional building to make it look secular like a modern shopping mall in order to reach non-Christians.

The Scriptures instruct Christians to assemble on a regular basis to encourage one another. That assembly is for worship and so it is going to be a religious service and we should not try to hide that purpose by disguising it in secular garb and jargon.

The church should be evangelistic but the Sunday morning worship service is not the time for that or so much so that it needs to become more secular than religious. Let the church be the church on a daily basis and like the early church described in Acts 2 souls will be added.

McKeever states in his article that Rick Warren and Andy Stanley and the churches they are with will always be changing. And so they should. They were never traditional. We need churches out on the cutting edge reaching those who cannot be reached by the traditional church. But we do not need to "kill" a great traditional church by making changes it is not ready to make and doesn't need to make just in order to be for change.

We need to stop accusing Christians who oppose changes they consider radical and not needed as being against all change.

Change is the motto of our President and government. I am not against all changes in government but I am strongly against some changes. But that doesn't make me narrow minded and against change.

In a "nut shell" my convictions are that change is good---but not all change. A traditional church that is not dead should not be destroyed in order to rebuild it into a less religious environment so as to appeal to a secular society. I believe this so strongly that I believe that any preacher or group of elders that do this will give account for it on the day of judgment. If a person desires to be with a less traditional church they can join one or plant one of their own. But do not tear apart Christ's church, which is His Body.