More On Beards

[returnman]

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.

Very admirable for you to acknowledge this issue. The statistics for decades have always been that the UPC lost 90% of their youth eventually. There has been a lot of changes from what I see even from my distant vantage point. Young people need to participate in activities with others outside the church such as sports. Here is a big reason why that I even pointed out years ago. When they went to work at the big grocery store or where ever they mix with the world eventually. I saw it time and again where they were so brittle they succumbed immediately trying to be accepted. Not every church is so large they can incorporate enough activity to keep youth occupied till they are in their early 20's. I know I'll get blasted.