Are some churches stuck in the past?
“Around 3 in 10 (29%) U.S. Protestant churchgoers say their church’s ministry activities and methods would fit best in a time period before the turn of the new millennium….Close to half (52%) say their church’s ministry belongs in the 2000s or later. Another 19% aren’t sure.” - Baptist Press
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...that when Billy Graham was accused of taking the church back 100 years, he responded by saying that if that were true, he'd failed, because he wanted to take it back 1900 years. Also relevant is William Joseph Inge's observation "Whoever marries the spirit of this age will find himself a widower in the next."
Now I'm not meaning that we can't use modern technology and methods, but the current state of fundagelical churches means, IMO, that we ought to be adopting things from all ages; the "methodical" Bible study of the early Methodists, the insistence on personal holiness of the Pietists, the various music of the ages, etc.. One thing that came to mind during the epidemic was that the "forest churches" that believers used in the USSR and throughout the Warsaw Pact and China were a great alternative to traditional churches in buildings.
We need to think outside the box, lest we see our own culture as "the only valid culture" and proceed to hold to that instead of Scripture.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
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