THE GOOD OLD DAYS
Try as we might, we can’t turn back time. While that may seem obvious, we often hope to return to the church’s “good old days.”
Many of us remember
seeing the pews filled with people nearly every Sunday morning.
knowing that our regular offerings would meet our congregation’s needs.
the clamoring and laughter of Sunday school classes filled with little children.
how nice it was to share Holy Communion with so many family members, and friends, and neighbors.
It’s natural, even healthy, to look back with fondness to our treasured memories.
But time doesn’t move backwards and while the joys of the past can warm our hearts, we neither can live in the past nor can we recreate it.
Nostalgia is not bad thing, but continually dwelling on the past can keep us from appreciating what God is doing for us now. It can also become an obstacle to us as we move into the future.
The church that many of us have grown up in, dearly loved, and hoped to share with future generations has changed and is changing.
The church has changed and is changing largely in response to technological, social, and cultural changes. It is also doing so because the people of God continue to change.
I wish I could tell you what our church might look like in twenty-five years, but I simply can’t see that far ahead. I do believe that it will be something new and perhaps different from what we might otherwise expect.
The Bible tells us that God has done new things and I believe that God will continue to do new things far into the future.
Let us all trust in God. Let us also strive to forgive one another as we have been forgiven. And let us love one another as God so greatly loves us. Jesus calls us to do this.
Following in the path of Christ is not easy work, but it is a good way to greet what perhaps will be a new and different future – blessed by God.
Peace, Hope, Love, and Joy!
Pastor Mike
**************************************
“Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the
wilderness and rivers in the desert.”
Isaiah 43:18-19
Leave a Reply