Thursday, March 1, 2007

Shift - "Cultural Freeze"

The last few days have been great and at the same time challenging. I have been at a conference that has moved me to think about a lot of different things in my life and ministry.
One of the speaker (Darren Whitehead) spoke on where culture is, where it has been and where it's going and what we as the Church can do about it. He spoke about cultural freeze and how when many immigrants move to a different area of the world that they bring with them the culture that they left, they freeze that culture in time. They never evolve. Has the Church been in a cultural freeze? Have we been living in a past world/culture for too many years.
He spoke of people coming into our churches and looking at what where doing and thinking we are in a time freeze. Thinking, "How does this apply to my life, situation, etc.." Have we become an antique shop of sorts, holding on to things that are no doubt beautiful, but irrelevant to today culture. Of course we are not talking about the message, the gospel of Jesus changing or evolving, but rather the methods we use to share the most important story given to mankind.
This generation wants to be involved, not just preached to. They want to be a part of the solution, a part of the journey, they want to make a difference and know that what they are doing is making a difference in those around them. God has given each of us a purpose to follow, a gift to use and we as leaders must help them to see what those gifts are and help them use them for His glory.