More On Beards

[Amanah]

Originally Posted by TakingDominion

I was having this discussion with my wife last night, (not specifically beards, but more along the lines of church traditions that we hold as biblical absolutes). The problem isn't the beards, the problem is with the mindset that says we can't change!

I was talking about how church folks in general and apostolics especially are against changing anything. Changing the lights, changing the pulpit (gasp), trading pews for chairs (liberals!) is usually met with cries of compromise and rhetoric about holding on to the "old paths".

She immediately accused me of compromise on things like dress standards etc. To that point in the conversation, I hadn't brought up dress standards at all. And that is the problem. Pennycostals hear the word change, and they immediately correlate it with "letting down standards" or compromising the message.

I told her, I'm not advocating changing the message. I'm saying we should look at changing the methods. Paul said, I have become all things to all people in order to try and save some!

I don't know what you guys are seeing, but in my local church we are LOSING this generation. I believe the biggest problem is that in rejecting any change within the conservative apostolic movement, we are not becoming all things to all people. In rejecting social media, we are rejecting the BIGGEST medium teenagers use today. In rejecting any change in service structure, we are telling the next generation they have to worship just like grandpa did. The truth is, this generation doesn't do ANYTHING like grandpa did anymore.

This is an important issue and also a slippery slope, I watched a UC church circle the drain when it let down standards in the hope of trying to save the youth group we were losing. I don't have answers but like your wife, it's one of my biggest concerns.

The other being, how do we make course corrections without becoming worldly and lost in entertainment forgetting the prayer closet.

We need to focus first on saving our families, and then on reaching the lost. If we save 30 people and our kids die lost, what is that worth?