Monday, February 09, 2004

The quest to figure out this new emerging culture has consumed much of my thought life lately. I feel that the church hase woefully failed to read they culture changes until it was too late, and the changes that they church just caught onto are now passe'. I feel that the church needs to be a place where every generation can glorify God, together. But with the compartmentalization of age groups in the modern church that makes it almost impossible. Is it possible to create a church that embraces all ages and worship styles and reaches the culture? How about not just reaching the culture, but shaping it? Isn't it time that the church gets out from under the rock it crawled into in the 20th century and begin to shape culture again? Isn't it time that hollywood and the music industry look to artists of faith for leadership? I feel like the church needs to transform itself every 10 to 15 years, maybe faster as technology and style evolve. The seeker churches have a limited shelf life unless they begin to reinvent what they mean by the term seeker. That goes for all churches, who are we trying to reach? Perhaps we need to hold onto our traditions a little looser. Perhaps we need to take a lesson from water, which is always in motion, and as it moves faster and faster it spreads farther and farther (steam). But if the church is inflexible it's ice. Ice can melt but it take time. The church should see itself as fluid in the changing culture, moving, advancing. The church shouldn't be a faucet, but a deluge.