Timeless

Throughout the history of the church, we have affected culture and have been affected by culture. “Blue laws” were laws or ordinances that prohibited the commercial sale of products or activities on Sundays or religious holidays. The church had an effect on culture. The modern “church service” is much different than the gatherings in the early church. We have been affected by time constraints, attention spans, personalized programs, and stage production. The culture has had an effect on the local church. The desire to stay relevant is not a bad thing. Many missiologists point out Paul’s relevance with local culture in Acts 17. Relevance is important, but its place in line is far behind biblical faithfulness.

As churches struggle to compete for the time and interest of congregants, we find ourselves more concerned with marketing and branding than authenticity and obedience. Our desire to be clever may, at times, come at the expense of clarity. Though churches want to remain relevant to a changing culture, it is more important to stay grounded in scripture. Paul tells the church in 2 Corinthians 4:2 that they set “forth the truth plainly”. When possible, we should opt to use words as they are used in scripture as opposed to clever alliterations and pithy sayings.

This year, our desire to please the Lord. I know, that is predictable. We want to please Him be remaining grounded in His Word – also predictable! Predictability is not a bad thing. Clarity is often more favorable than clever! Isaiah reminds us in Isaiah 40:8 (ESV) “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.”

In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul reminds the church that everything temporal will pass away – even our level of understanding and incomplete knowledge will be swallowed up in eternity. Only three things on earth will remain – faith, hope, and love. In other words, fads come and go, but faith, hope and love are always relevant. If we want to be timeless and always relevant, we must value what will never fade.

 The early church faced persecution and opposition. They were imprisoned, beaten and even exiled. However, they did not view themselves as victims. They understood the empty tomb won the victory. How are we affected by cultural decay? Even though we may resist the moral decay, do we find ourselves living as victims who are simply “hanging on”? Let it not be said of us. We are more than conquerors through Christ! They prayed for boldness in Acts 4. They were filled with the Spirit and ALL boldness. The world needs a bold church. Our focus in 2023 is not clever, it is simply biblical:  BOLD Faith, BOLD Hope, & BOLD Love.