It seems like in this post-modern generation everybody is always looking for change. Not very many people like things to stay the same. Routine can be somewhat boring and repetitive. It was really great to hear Russ talk about how the church is continuing to grow by changing up the normal rhythm of the services. My old home church back in Portland was a Lutheran church and they are a perfect example of how a church failed to respond to change. Over the past few years there were pastors who left and there became fewer and fewer members attending. It wasn’t until the church took a vote whether to stay in the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) or not that things started to get real messy. The vote ended up tearing the church apart. They had to move out of the building because of the low attendance and move into a much smaller building with only a handful of members. I really appreciated Russ’s words about how change in the church is like moving houses. If you get all situated in your new house and move the furniture around where you like it, then it will be very hard to change the order of things. However, if you spend the night in a tent outside with a couple pieces of furniture, then it will feel much more temporary and it will be easier to get up and move. The church needs to be more vision oriented and willing to get out of the normal routines. If we do not enforce this idea of change, how are we going to raise up committed followers of Christ?

– Brian