In science, the second law of thermodynamics suggests that physical matter wears out over time and things need to be updated and refreshed to stay current. This appears to be true with systems, ideas, rules, products and the simple ways we live in our daily lives.
The world of even 20 years ago was a different world to grow up in, attend school, find a job, start a family, even prepare and eat a meal. Communication, lifestyle, clothing, entertainment and living conditions are different. We have unconsciously adapted to these changes and don’t even realize the contrasts that exist between the life we lived just 20 years ago.
This means we need to adapt and leave the old behind. Doing church in today’s world is different. How do we get our message out, what can we do and say during our service that honestly represents our message, are we really sharing ideas that are transformational in today’s stressed-out world? These are the new questions to be asking, and then looking for answers that produce loving and lasting change in our community.
Is it time to take a refreshing look at everything we do as a church community and individual members and update our way of doing church? We have a wonderful, transformational message that is relevant to creating real and lasting change for the better. Are we sharing it in a way that connects with today’s citizens that are so busy figuring out how to survive that they don’t have time to stop and listen to anything that seems old hat?
This week, six of us attended a workshop at Unity in New Braunfels given by Shad Groverland, the president of UWM. (See picture below.) He shared some of the uncomfortable truths about the ways we are going about church. The uncomfortable part was triggered, at least for me, by the old idea “we have always done it this way and we can’t change it.”
Shad is sharing with Unity Ministries all over our nation, a program that supports each of our ministries to do their own investigation into current practices and updating them into more current ways of marketing and sharing the wonderful message we have.
I encourage you, our members, to get involved and create a loving, powerful community of spiritual beings that are sharing our message of hope. How, I don’t know, you will figure that out.
I complete this message with words by the apostle Paul in Philippians 3:13, “I do not consider that I have reached the goal; but this thing I know, forgetting those things which are behind, I strive for those things before me.”
I Love you...
Rev. Robert