In for a complete overhaul

I just returned this week from a 4 day cruise aboard The Carnival Destiny (can you believe I forgot to pack my Speedo??). This ship was built in 1995 and is the largest of its kind with swimming pools, a water slide, basketball courts, miniature golf, a casino (I didn’t play), multiple restaurants, rooms to sleep 4,000 people and much more.

This ship will take one more cruise than port for a complete overhaul; two more decks will be added as well as specialty restaurants to keep up with the changes of the times in order to service more people and their needs.

This ship reminded me of an important lesson: every innovation has an expiration date. At some point, new isn’t new anymore, regardless of what the package says. Everything that is currently in place was adopted as an improvement over an outdated approach that was at one time a revolutionary idea. And so it goes with the church and its approach as well.

Everything that is currently in place begun as a challenge to the status quo in a previous generation. What’s ugly now was beautiful then. What feels irrelevant now was cutting edge once upon a time. New ideas are generally considered bad ideas, then they become normative. Then, eventually, they are yesterday’s news. Nothing is new or innovative forever.

Our best ideas will eventually go the way of hand bell choirs, bus ministries, potluck dinners, and dressing up for church. We are foolish to think our ideas are trans-generational. We are equally foolish to assume that we will intuitively be able to sniff out the need to change in our church.

Why do we hang onto those things that now are ineffective in reaching the current culture? Truth is, the clock is ticking on our good ideas and it’s ticking backwards and it’s ticking faster than we think.

 

P.S. You won’t want to miss Sunday’s message at 9:00 and 10:30am! Greg Stier, our guest speaker, will motivate you spiritually in such a way you will want to conquer the world!