Earlier this week, Scot McKnight over at the Jesus Creed blurbed on 'How the Church has Changed.' The post lists 12 observations on how the church McKnight grew up in differs from the ones he experiences today. The post highlights many of the changes we see in today's churches, and although McKnight claims to write as an 'exercise of comparison', and not a 'journey into nostalgia', the list does at least read a bit nostalgic at times. His observations got me thinking though. How has my church and my experience of church changed through the years? That was about 3 days ago, and here I am now, still trying to craft a well thought out list of my own. I've got nothing. The church I'm in now is pretty much the same church I've been going to since my earliest memories. Propensity for change is certainly not a trait of Fundamentalism. Sure the location, the personalities, and the environment have all changed, but the organics of the church, how it thinks, how it behaves, how it displays itself, has remained fairly static. I say that not to begin a grievous rant. There is something to be said about consistency and standing firm in who you are. It shows confidence and a realization of identity. However, I wonder how the local church, a gathering of believers committed to worshipping God by the actualization of effectively serving each other and the community they live in, can continue to be relevant to a changing culture both inside and outside its cracking plastered walls.
I can only speak for myself of course. Many in my community do not share my struggles (which of course makes the struggle all the more intolerable). While I strain to highlight changes my church has gone through over the greater part of the last decade, I can write easily of changes to my thoughts and faith over those same years. What do you do then,when you come to the realization that although you've changed, your church hasn't? Doing nothing is an option only for the lifeless and disinterested. Which leaves us with the option of either changing churches or seeking (and hoping for) change in the church. I've struggled over this off and on for years now. As evidenced by my continuance, I find the latter the more desirable, albeit more difficult, option. Mcknight's last observation is that we now live in a 'change-your-church world.' I find that about as irritating as I do true, and my stubbornness resists the desire to seek out another church. The question that needs to be answered is where can I and my family be the most effective (notice I did not say affected, which is, if were honest, what we really want the most). I'm still trying to work that one out. Ask me today and my answer will likely be different than the one I gave yesterday and may or may not be the same I give you tomorrow.
What do you think? How much change is too much change in a church? Do you tend to think the changes seen in today's church are positive or negative?
