The more things change.....

Through the years we have witnessed many plans implemented to improve our situations. In my youth, those who attended church were actively involved in what the church was about. We went to church Sunday morning (Sunday School and Church), Sunday night, and Wednesday night for prayer and deep Bible Study. When I was in high school, I went to my high school youth club and was a leader of a club designed for third through fifth-grade boys. 

My weekends were often spent traveling six hours north to the camp with whom our church partnered (where I serve today), and my summers were spent serving young people from back as far as I can remember. Our senior pastor, my dad, would often be the driver, and led us in work, attitude, and Bible Study. I remember that it was normal for youth pastors, leaders, and high school and college-age people to spend the entire summer serving others in this remote location. 

We were busy people.

The problems we faced were not new to our generation, and the solutions we attempted to apply, in retrospect, did little to solve the real problem, and have now entrenched itself as normal in our evangelical experience. 

It seems that after a while, the demise of the family and all social and spiritual ills were attributed to being too busy. The idea of busyness being next to Godliness was and should have been challenged, but we seemed to be focused on issues that had little to do with the actual problems the church was experiencing. 

It is not new or prudent to blame exterior circumstances, people, and programs for our deficiencies. The family was falling apart due to our increased narcissism, not our busyness. 

In fact, what was normal was challenged, and in doing so, a new normal was declared. This new normal was not something that was new at all, and it did not really take full effect until the old normal, and those who embraced it, became evil themselves. 

The old guard became accused of being non-relational workaholics who cared more about doing than being. They were also accused of being dogmatic, legalistic, and out of touch with modern times. 

While there are not sacred methods, only sacred principles, they were accused of making their methods sacred, and for a society where individuality ruled, corporate methods were, well, downright evil. 

Throughout time, we began to switch the focus from God and Bible Study to me and hours of immersion in the culture. The new normal took over, and the old guard was tolerated. The focus, supposedly, was now on the family, self, and relationships, and structure was only valid if it benefited my personal agenda. 

We somehow reduced the church to one service a week with a clever message, about twenty minutes long, that appealed to the masses, and we hired more professional to make sure the music, ambiance, and coffee were just as the masses desired them. We made the chairs more comfortable, the atmosphere more secular, and the times more convenient. 

We lessened the commitment of those who were asked to serve, and in doing so, reduced the effectiveness of their service. We somehow considered it a sacrifice rather than a privilege to teach Sunday School, be a youth leader, or to clean the church bathroom. 

We turned our pastors into specialists, and then hired more of them to do the jobs that the members of the church used to do. 

We changed when the youth clubs met, and moved them to one night, so we would not disturb the family, and even shortened the night and club year to accommodate busy schedules.

With all the changes over the past 25 years, we should be able to look and see that we now have a healthier church. We should see stronger families, people who know more of God’s Word, and who have the habit of walking with Him. We should see more service and more impact in the workplace for our King. 

You would think we would see fewer suicides, depression, anxiety, and stress. Our youth works should be thriving, and, with the amassed wealth of Americans, the church should be sitting on a sound financial foundation. 

Yet, we do not see these things, which means that the changes made had little or nothing to do with the problems we were encountering, and that, once again, we, as people, were duped into blaming something other than ourselves for the problems we experienced. 

I am not sure that being busy is an answer to anything, just as I am sure that focusing on anything other than God is a not a good idea.

In the museum of antiquity in Constantinople, there is the oldest piece of writing known to men. It bears the following inscription: “Alas times are not what they used to be! Children no longer obey their parents, and everybody is writing a book about it.”

The more things change the more they stay the same. Perhaps I need to admit that I am the problem, and then go from there and make myself available to God so that He can work in and through me. Perhaps I need to stop focusing on what is “good” for me and instead focus on the best way to show those around me who God is. Perhaps we need to see the church as a place of corporate service, rather than a service to the corporate.