There was a time when the best entrepreneurs, the best thinkers, the most gifted ones used to look at the church as the place to which they can give of their best selves in order to make the greatest difference.
Those days are long gone.
These days, we're just happy as a peach if we get any young people to darken the doors of our churches.
And the greatest tragedy of this is not that these folks are missing from the life of the church. That's bad enough.
The greatest tragedy is that we have come to accept this reality as the norm.
And that's a tragedy.
What happened? Where did we go wrong?
Growing old is a part of life. That's what happens. But that's what happens to individuals.
When institutions get old, they die.
The church and the sharing of the good news of Jesus Christ is unlike any other institution. The church is supposed to take the same message of the good news of Jesus Christ - that he lived, he died, and he rose again - and share that in such a way that new generations take hold of this story as their own story.
Because of the ageless truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the church doesn't ever have to get old. In fact when churches get old, they die. And should a generation of churches get old and die, that's an absolute tragedy.
I suppose a dissertations could be written on this subject.
But here's where I would like to start.
I would love it if the church started looking at the aging of the church as an unacceptable future, and commit to doing whatever it will take to reach those who are currently not being reached by the church.
As long as we're open to where God is leading, God can change our world through a church that's willing to go wherever he leads, and do whatever he asks.
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