what year

What year is it?  Lyle Shaller, a famous church consultant, used to begin every meeting with a church by asking the question, "What year is it here?"

Do you hear the question?  Here it is... Are you church folks acting like we are still in 1960?  1975?  1980?  Is your view of the church, like the church you grew up in?  Do you expect Woods Chapel 2011 to be like the church you grew up in?  How many years ago was that?  What year is it in your brain for the church?

Is it possible that Christendom is fluid and that it is not contained by the shape of any particular decade?  Is it possible that the Spirit continues to call us away from our cultural views of "church" and towards a faithful following of Jesus?  Is it possible that we are stuck in a picture of the church that no longer works, and is no more faithful simply because it is the paradigm that we learned?

The year today of course is 2011.  The church of 2011 and into the future cannot be held back by our ideas.  God draws us away from our preconceived notions and into faithfulness.   Are you ready to go?

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.