In order to be relevant you always have to keep things fresh.
With our rapidly changing world and cultural shifts, this is perhaps a little easier said than done. But if we are going to impact this generation we are going to have to have a fresh message that is relevant.
For years Jamie and I have both worked in the medical field. One requirement for anyone in this field is that each year you must do continuing education. Change is a constant in medicine. As technology changes, our ways of treating diseases change. There are constantly new innovations, discoveries and updates. Constant education and re-education helps you keep pace with the change. If you fail to stay updated, you will find yourself quickly falling into irrelevance.
Think about this for a moment. You have the choice of two doctors. They both have been in practice 20 years with great success. The difference between them, however, is that one is utilizing the latest technology, therapies and medications. The other uses the same methods as they practiced 20 years ago. Which one would you go to? The answer is simple.
If the people that we trust our bodies to need to be constantly changing their methods to be most effective, why is it that those who deal with the eternal soul (the church) never seems to want to change their methods (notice I said Methods NOT Message)?? I know of ministries that are doing things exactly the same as they did 20 years ago. We must have fresh methods and a fresh approach to be effective with the Gospel in this generation.
Let me give you two examples. You may have heard of two ministers, now deceased, Lester Sumrall and Oral Roberts. These were two men who made great strides for the Christian faith. They were literally pioneers of the faith and did tremendous things to advance the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They really began to make their big impacts in about the early 1960's and their reputations followed them until their deaths.
In the early 1980's a well respected minister had the opportunity to go to South Bend, Indiana, and speak at Dr. Lester Sumrall's church. Now Dr. Sumrall had stories from the mission field that sounded like the book of Acts all over again...stories of mass salvations, deliverance and miracles. He was alive with expectation about experiencing the environment of his services. When he got there he found the church to be really just kind of "ordinary," "flat" and it seemed to be full of just older people. He thought to himself, "these people don't know what they have. Why is this church not the biggest church in South Bend, Indiana? I just don't understand it."
In the 1970's Oral Roberts opened Oral Roberts University and the City of Faith. The idea for the City of Faith was to be a medical center that would offer compassionate care, research and send out medical missionaries. It really seemed like a good idea. However by 1987, the City of Faith failed and had to close. The years preceding and following this financial failure were tumultuous times for Oral Roberts. The financial burden was overwhelming. The well respected minister that I mentioned earlier had hired some individuals on his staff that used to work with Oral Roberts. The Oral Roberts that this minister saw during the failure of the City of Faith was not the one that he knew...the powerful man of God and leader. What happened?
Those from his staff gave a remarkable insight. In the 1960's a tremendous amount of people had attached themselves to Oral Roberts' ministry. These people supported the ministry, prayed for the ministry and funded the ministry. Now most of these people were in their 50's when they first began supporting his ministry. By 1987 during the City of Faith crisis, these people were dead. Oral Roberts was not losing supporters...they were just dying.
What happened to these two ministers? They each hit a home run with their generation but they failed to appeal to the next generation. As a result an entire generation of people came around that had no idea of who these people were.
How often this happens with great moves of God. We impact and win one generation but we fail to change our methods, and we lose the next generation. Our message is too vital to fade into obscurity. We must keep ourselves fresh and relevant so that we can reach each generation with the message of Jesus Christ!
