There are people today who are in
a state of panic!
Me? I think we are living in the most exciting
time in Christianity since the Protestant Reformation.
Others are in panic because the
Presbyterian Church (USA) is losing members!
The same is true for any other denomination, but since I’m Presbyterian,
this is what concerns me most J
Me? I’m excited.
I think God is doing something new, and just because I don’t have a clue
what God is doing doesn’t bother me a bit.
Most of the time I have no idea what God is doing – so I’m used to
it. I just trust that he knows something
I don’t, which I don’t think is that hard.
So while others are in fear and
anxiety, I say, “so what?” It is not
that I don’t care about the Presbyterian Church, USA. I love this church. I am fiercely loyal to my church. I am sinfully proud to be part of this church. Do I care that it might not exist when my
great great grandson is born? No, not
really.
You remember that list of churches
in the Book of Revelation – there were seven of them and there were letters
sent to each of the angels of those churches.
Those churches don’t exist in the
21st century. So what?
That church that met in the home
of Aquila and Prisca – we don’t even know where the house was located.
All those other churches in the
New Testament? Gone.
BUT – the church survived.
Of course it did, Jesus built the
church upon a rock and told us the gates of hell would not prevail against it.
We’ve been around for 2,000 years,
and we are probably young compared to what we will be when “earth’s last
picture is painted, and all the tubes are twisted and dried.”
The United States of America? Founded in 1776.
ATT&T? Founded in 1885.
IBM? Founded in 1911.
Google? 1998.
The church? We’ve been here for 2000 years and we will be
around a lot longer, because Christ built the church on a rock and the gates of
hell will not prevail against us.
Not to say that
the church will be the same. It won’t
be. Thank God I don’t have to sit in one
of those uncomfortable frontier pews from 1801 listening to some preacher
ramble on without Power Point for 45 minutes.
Yes, I do like those old hymns, but please give me a little bit of
Praise Music that feels like that old time Rock and Roll, the music that
soothes my soul.
The
church is the most adaptive organization of all history.
Some
organizations are like that – take IBM.
International Business Machines built typewriters.
We got one in our church office – I’m not even
sure it works, but we’ve found it is good for piling stuff on top of it. IBM went from typewriters to computers. Why, because they weren’t in the business of
making typewriters, but business machines.
Or take
AT&T. The American TELEGRAPH and
Telephone? Does anyone other than Boy
Scouts use Morse Code? Are there any
operating telegraph machines?
Maybe. But my point is that
AT&T wasn’t in the telegraph business, but the communication business.
Then there is Kodak. If you bought their stock in 1997, it’s worth
96% of what you paid for it. They made
film and equipment and chemicals I used to use in a dark room. If you don’t know what those things are, my
point is made.
Blockbuster? Back in ancient times one had to rent a movie
by going to a store, looking to see if they had the video TAPE you needed, you
paid for it and had it for a day or two.
Then you had to return it. Yes,
they did adapt to DVD. But who rents
DVDs today? One MIGHT go to an automated
machine at the local CVS or Walgreens, but most of us watch the movies over the
Internet or other service that goes straight into our phones or TVs.
But the
church? We adapt. We change.
“Reformed and
always reforming” would make a great motto for our church. Oh wait – that is the motto of our
church.
Whither the
Presbyterian Church, USA? Of
course. Because God is at work, not at
rest. We can either journey with him, or
crawl into the grave and think about how things used to be.
