Times Change

“Times change. God doesn’t, but times do.” “Velvet Elvis” by Rob Bell. I am sure that Rob is not the first person to say that, but when I read it this morning it really struck me as profound. Barb and I preached in Pennsylvania for over 20 years. Where we lived was not that far from the Amish farms of Lancaster County. I was always amazed at how a people could maintain the “simple” lifestyle in the midst of one of the fastest growing counties in the State. Commercial and residential development all around them, and yet they were still in the horse and buggy days – literally. What struck me today was how much my tribe is like the Amish. We have not been as consistent as they. We have done a little picking and choosing when it comes to what we hang on too and what we leave behind, but in many ways we are a lot like them. Some how we have to deal with the mentality, that change is bad. The far right of my tribe, for lack of a better term, is throwing around the term, “change agents”. To them that is a bad thing. And yet, our movement was birthed by change agents by the name of Campbell, Stone, and others. Back then change was good, but now somehow it is bad. While their’s was a movement “back” to Biblical principals, ours is a movement toward application, in real ways, in real life – 21st. Century Life. If we are learning and growing we will always be in a state of change. When you think you have arrived you become stagnant and eventually you die. One of our Shepherds last Lord’s Day during communion made the comment that if someone from the first century church were to come into our assemblies during the Lord’s Supper they would not have a clue as to what we were doing. That is true, and at the same time, there is nothing wrong with that. But don’t we need to follow their example? Yes, very much so, in principle. We need to love, give, care, show compassion, preach the Gospel, etc., with the same heart and devotion they did. We need to allow the Gospel to change us and do for us what it did for them. We need to become change agents like they were change agents to our Century.