Monday, October 01, 2012
Not What, But How
MMI:
But yet I have seen it time and again, youth comes in, determines the old folks irrelevant and simply casts them to the side. They do not even bother to ask the old folks why they like it the way it is, or is their a way to make the change easier for them - just out with the old, in with the new.
There is something really wrong with this sort of thing and simply to write it off to cantankerous oldness in to miss the point. I can promise you that if it gets to a lawsuit, the cantankerousness is with more than the old folks. That bus runs both ways.
Somewhere grace and respect for the elderly is missing, which tells me there is a lot more that is missing that meets the eye.
What I hope I never become is a person that forgets that those older than me have things to offer and that they worked and sacrificed to give me what I have now and that I should honor them for that.
It’s true. Change Sucks. Ask some of the members of The Church At Carrollton, who are none too happy about change.Rhoades conclusion?
Since Pastor Greg Drake came five years ago, some things have changed. As noted in a news story, some people are ticked. Royally ticked, actually.
Here are the things cited that have changed:
1. The church name (it used to be Abilene Baptist Church)
2. No more ‘hymn book singing’
3. Removal of the piano and organ
4. Printed words to songs are now “replaced by a screen”
5. Several pews were removed
6. Some stained glass was partially covered.
7. Shut down Sunday School classes (these classes met for SS, then left before the service started)
8. Walking away from the SBC
The result? A lawsuit in county court questioning the legal ownership of the church entity, going back to the original deed in 1876.
I hope that I don’t become like this when I’m older.Change is not the problem here - it is how the change is done that is the problem. When people have spent literally a lifetime building and sustaining a church and someone new comes in and tells them their time is done - that's the problem. Such people should be honored, not trampled.
I hope that if/when I walk away from a church and it’s leadership, it’s about something much more important that hymnbooks, pews, stained glass and the like.
I pray that I don’t end up a bitter, angry, hopeless man as I get older.
But yet I have seen it time and again, youth comes in, determines the old folks irrelevant and simply casts them to the side. They do not even bother to ask the old folks why they like it the way it is, or is their a way to make the change easier for them - just out with the old, in with the new.
There is something really wrong with this sort of thing and simply to write it off to cantankerous oldness in to miss the point. I can promise you that if it gets to a lawsuit, the cantankerousness is with more than the old folks. That bus runs both ways.
Somewhere grace and respect for the elderly is missing, which tells me there is a lot more that is missing that meets the eye.
What I hope I never become is a person that forgets that those older than me have things to offer and that they worked and sacrificed to give me what I have now and that I should honor them for that.
Technorati Tags:church, generations, culture, change, grace
Generated By Technorati Tag Generator
