According to scientists, statisticians, and others who tally the past to peek into the future, we are in the midst of an information explosion of mind boggling proportions. Information (i.e.: knowledge) is doubling every few years, and the pace is accelerating. It is expected that we will see more changes in the next 10 years than all the changes that took place over the last 100 years.
That prospect is either exciting or frightening. It’s really exciting if you are embracing change, if you are plugged into the tools that enable you to benefit from this explosion of new thoughts and ideas, and if you have opened yourself to the possibilities of change. On the other hand, it’s tremendously frightening if you abhor change, if you reject the tools that facilitate the rapid exchange of new thoughts and ideas, and if you have decided to close yourself off from all the possibilities of change.
Think of this explosion of information in another way: imagine trying to surf a gigantic 40-60 foot high wave. This type of wave is a moving mountain of water that was virtually impossible to ride. Using conventional surfing techniques, you just could not get up enough speed to have any hope of getting into position to ride this avalanche of water. However, by applying new knowledge and technology, surfers now utilize jet skis to tow them, at high speed, into a position where they can actually surf the huge wave… instead of just being crushed by tons of falling water. I imagine that we will have to utilize new tools and techniques ourselves, if we want to ride the crest of the coming information and technology wave… if we don’t, we will fall hopelessly behind, and surely be crushed by massive (and fast moving) change.
In my opinion, our churches (for the most part) are likewise unable to keep up with the rising wave of believers. God’s Spirit is moving as never before among his people, and yet, mainline churches continue to see declining membership rolls. Those churches that have actively embraced change, have utilized new technologies, and were able to let go of old traditions, are growing at such a pace that we call them mega-churches. Yet for all their vast size, these mega-churches are connecting people to God… and community… and programs… with an incredible success rate. There’s an old adage that says: “A church should not be a museum for Saints, but rather a hospital for sinners.” The successful churches have reworked themselves into campuses that focus on reaching, teaching, and equipping disciples.
Are you ready for God’s faith explosion? Ask Christ into your life, and God’s Holy Spirit will give you what you need… and more. Kind of like the match, we are unable to set ourselves on fire spiritually. There is a reason that the Holy Spirit is depicted as tongues of flame; the Holy Spirit sets us aflame spiritually. Look at the picture of the matches, and imagine what can happen to all the people around you… if YOU let the Spirit fire you up.
How HAS God fired you up? What smolders inside of you waiting for faith, commitment, and surrender to God’s will to ignite it into a flaming passion? Flame on!
Your brother in Christ,
Dave
Great work Dave. I agree with everything you say. tee hee
ReplyDeleteI really like the concept in the photo. We are told not to neglect coming together. It is so easy to not be fired up when alone. When I was in photo school, I sort of entered mid-stream, into a very lively, enthusiastic, very good core of photographers. We all bounced off each other and got encouragement and ideas and all were better because of all of us. The next class only had two of 'us' enthused/good people. Boy was it hard to pull good work out of that group! Mediocrity ruled! And no one got very excited about anything. As Christians, we have *soooo* much to be excited about - God *really* *loves* us!!!! He has and continues to do great things for and in us!!!
ReplyDeleteOn the subject of change, I have seen a couple of churches which adopted the new style of multimedia/contemporary service. A couple of them really bombed as it were; they were only changing the style. If the foundation is merely style or 'religion' and not the exciting life-changing relationship, it doesn't really matter what the style is. And if people are getting more and more excited about God, it doesn't really matter if they have traditional forms. We have one church here which is wildly new and vibrant; it's doing very well. Another church is more traditional and doing well; so many of the churches around had gone untraditional that there no longer was a traditional one locally in that denomination; it's growing with all ages, a very exciting, excited church. People are so varied. My own church in Guntersville is largish but not huge; we are a mixture of contemporary and traditional; we have pockets of great excitement and pockets of "don't do it like that". But we continue with great joy and wonderful things are happening.