The world is changing faster than we can keep up. The Church is still preaching to a world that doesn’t exist.
Scott Cormode, Pastor in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the Hugh De Pree Professor of Leadership Development at Fuller Theological Seminary
When a company designs a product that subsequently doesn’t work, they need to change it, adapt its design: re-shape it for the future. It may even be discontinued. Is our product needing renewal?
We can often celebrate birthdays or anniversaries where we look back over all those years. What part of that past do we look back upon, the past that we hold onto? Does that allow us to remain in the past or, vitally, breathe life into today?
As mentioned last post, time marches forward. The resurrection takes us forward, not into another world, but into this world. Transformed and able to be transformative.
But the Gospel can’t change, the whole underlying understanding of the transformative power of the Resurrection can’t change – but how we articulate that can be rewritten.
Why?
Society has changed, more so in this last 6 months. Just as we have experienced such change within the Church, the society we exist within has also changed dramatically. It is how we express the Gospel, in all of its ways, that may need to be changed.
Look at the adverts on the TV or YouTube. They are short, snappy, key statements. If people are captivated they’ll go the website to check out something more. How is our website? Is our product needing renewal?
One Church site declared that 54% of all churches in their area did not have a web presence, and that area is leading the way in creative web design and online practices. That previous link highlights the variety of different ways we can reach others.
It may not be our preferred social media format, but … we are already part of the church.
I spoke on the last post about singing, a form of worship. It has been the de rigour, the usual way, for centuries. But it hasn’t always been as such. There have been variations, different ways. Is our product needing renewal?
What’s next?
Our worship has typically taken place together but, recalling only recently and may again in the future, now may be on our own – but God is still there.
How can we encourage and facilitate the independence, that self-creativity, within others?
We need to trust God to allow us, individually, to be more creative with words, music, images, and silence so they all may be a focal point for worship.