Thursday, November 22, 2007

The Next 500 years...

Last weekend I was at the National Youth Workers Convention in Atlanta, GA. There were 5,500 youth ministers, and amazing speakers, bands, worship leaders, and so much more.

My title to this post refers to one of the main speakers of the weekend: Phillis Tickle. This older lady, her words not mine, came and gave a history lesson on the Church. She explained in many more words than this that every 500 years, the Church has had to undergo a huge "shift." One example was the Protestant reformation, an important part of Church history (kinda).

Anyway, she talked about all the examples at length and then she shared that we are now starting to go through a NEW shift. She explained that each of the divisions of the Church were now starting to talk, at "water coolers" or in my generation coffee shops, and share about beliefs and church practices and lifes answers and question, and even starting to come closer together.

Her ploy to us was that within this new shift of the Church, "we" the collective of church leaders, are setting the course of the Church for the next 500 years; whatever that might be. But she warned not to get so excited about this new change that we forget about where we have come from, our history and our traditions.

It made me think about what we; maybe just me; do as youth ministers. We typically will forget about traditions and history, in order to be "relevant." The problem is that when we forget where we came from, we can stray so far from the goal and purpose of the Church that we lose all credibility.

I think that struggle within all this is
HOW CAN WE HOLD ON AND EMBRACE TRADITION AND HISTORY, WITHOUT BEING HELD BACK BY IT?

I believe, maybe, that in embracing where we are and have been that we might find where we should go. . .

Where will we end up? What will this great shift be?
I don't know, but I am so excited about being a part of it!

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