Last year, my dentist told me I needed at least five crowns. The thought of that made me feel tired and broke all at once.
I got a bit of the work done but then took a break.
One afternoon I was eating some cereal and I noticed something that didn’t feel like cereal in my mouth. It was half a molar.
Guess where I went the next day?
Too often, that’s exactly how we approach change in the church. We wait until something breaks, and then we’ll try to fix it.
That may work with a tooth, but it’s a terrible strategy for churches (OK, and for dentistry).
In our rapidly changing culture, waiting until something breaks to fix it is one of the fastest ways to ensure you become irrelevant.
If change makes you tired, I promise you, the slow death of your church will make you even more tired.
5. You Don’t Have a Relevant Church If Your Dominant Emotions Toward Culture Are Negative
If social media is any gauge of how many Christian leaders feel about our culture, the church is in trouble.
And even if you’re not posting on your social media in ALL CAPS, telling the world how bad it is, your attitude still matters.
Constantly criticizing a culture is no way to reach it.
I am constantly reminded that Jesus loved the world. He saw the mess, the brokenness, the godlessness, and embraced us anyway.
Jesus loved the world enough to die for it.
