Jon's Weblog

Tony Morgan (Chief Strategist for NewSpring Church) has a great post up on his blog about the present and future of the church.  Tony talks about a couple in their 60’s accepting Christ in their Greenville campus, which is a video venue.  The experience at the Greenville campus is designed with a young audience in mind: young leadership, loud music, and video teaching.  Notice what Tony says:

Here’s what we’ve learned. If we design our service experiences for a younger audience, we’re more likely to reach that younger person and we’ll also reach older folks. The reverse is not true. If we designed our service experience for an older audience, the younger crowd would not show up.

How true that is!  As someone who has been in church for 29 years, I know the traditions and “way we’ve always done it”.  But I’ve also been burned out with church that is not relevant to my life.  Too often we get stuck in those traditions and dictate to the future leaders what church should and should not be instead of allowing them to reach out to the next generation in a way that the former never could.  God makes us all different and I believe that we are celebrating God’s design and creativity when we use our talents and creativity to glorify Him and reach those who are far from God.  It all came from Him anyway.

I have to say, I’m surprised and amazed by the different generations we have represented at CrossPoint.  I think its great!  It only makes me trust God more in that He can use all kinds of people to make each Sunday happen.  I love that we have all ages because there are people that I can’t reach that a more mature person can.  And it’s all about reaching those who are far from God and making them committed followers of Christ.  That being said, we should never get too comfortable with what CrossPoint is right now.  We should always be asking what’s next and be ok with change, even if it’s not our preference, if it furthers God’s kingdom.

Tony’s boss, Perry Noble, said this in one of his messages: If we don’t constantly adapt and change, today’s contemporary is tomorrow’s traditional.