Same Old, Same Old

 

As a pastor, I always feel a pressure to do church the way it's always been done by the men before me. And I say men because in my ministry experience, it has been men before me. I wasn't raised in a tradition that affirmed women as equal, not in the home and certainly not in the Church.  Today, I find myself in a denomination that beautifully affirms the work of the Spirit in both women and men. Although there are always individuals who behave otherwise, I have found a home that embraces my call.  Anyways, I always feel the pressure to do church the way it's always been done, to stick within the box and behave as those before me.  This is true of every pastor. Every single one.

That pressure to remain the same dominates most conversations and meetings; however, if we continue to do church the way that it's always been done, then we will get the same results and with time those results will exacerbate and death is inevitable. I'm not necessarily talking about an individual church, although this is true of every body, including my own; but this morning I'm thinking Church universal. 

The Church has lost its prophetic voice. We have settled in fear and comfort-ability. The Church has lost its relevance (and yes, we are supposed to matter to the world); perhaps a better word is that the Church has lost its credibility because we have lost all authenticity. 

At the end of the day, 

I'm not called to the status quo. 

I am called to the mountain top 

     by way of valleys. 

I'm not called to just squeak by on the paths traversed before.

I am called to blaze trails as I run passionately after Jesus 

    and His children in this world. 

I am called to be a city on a hill shining brightly 

and we don't do that with the same old, same old 

because the same old, same old 

has not shined for years. 

It's wick has been extinguished. 

This world needs the Church...

to live out the freedom that we say we have in Christ. 

Our believe and our behave don't match 

because we are 

burdened, 

bogged down, 

bound in slavery 

to the past

be it in 

habits, 

rituals 

or debt. 

This world needs the Church...

to be 

authentically 

broken 

and 

transparently 

redeemed!