This week we toured Winchester College, the oldest private school in England, founded in 1394. What stood out to us was the power of tradition. In many ways, the school has changed beyond recognition, but some practices have remained virtually unchanged from what you would have seen five or six centuries ago had you been touring the college then. Even the dining hall was original.
And that is the secret of the school’s success. It is built on foundations that have stood the test of time. Outward features have changed to suit the times but the things that matter have not.
Why is it that sometimes we can get things so backward in church?
Whole denominations are dying in the west for this very reason. They have thrown out the foundations they should have kept, while the outdated outward rituals have stayed largely the same. You may have heard me rant previously about the church where the minister was furious because the communion table had been temporarily moved for a wedding service, but had no problem denying the divinity of Christ or dismissing the Bible as a collection of myths.
The church networks I have been most closely associated with began in an attempt to get things right. We changed a lot of outward things to try to reach the culture we were in, but we held absolutely fast to the principles of truth expressed in the Bible.
The problem is that the world is changing faster than we are. What reached the culture twenty years ago doesn’t cut it today.
I am a little older than the median age these days, but I’m fighting on the side of the future.
The key to winning this battle is simple. We keep the message the same but we’re willing to make any change necessary in how to communicate it.
Modes of communication are changing faster than at any point in human history. Email barely existed twenty years ago. Facebook barely existed ten years ago. And yet young people have moved on. Today it’s neither email nor Facebook but Instagram, but tomorrow it may be something else.
The great Canadian thinker Marshall McLuhan, who was a believer, made the statement, “The medium is the message.” He saw this kind of change coming as a result of the birth of electronic communication. That was television, folks. All the rest comes from that.
In this age, the medium demands a different form of communication. Shorter, sharper, catchier.
If we can’t learn to distill Biblical truth to present this way, we will lose a generation to others who can communicate their message.
This does not mean dumbing down the faith. Communication is only the doorway to reach people. After that we begin to teach and disciple them.
So what am I doing about it? You can laugh at me, but I’m finding sharp young people to teach me how to communicate in the world of Instagram. One of my younger friends has nearly one hundred thousand young people following him. And he has truth to share.
Not all of us can do that, but our churches must find people who can. Our future depends on it.
CONSIDER PARTNERING WITH DAVID & ELAINE CAMPBELL IN HELPING TO SUSTAIN THEIR ACTIVE MINISTRY.
AWAKENING MINISTRIES // FOUNDATION of FAITH Project
Foundation of Faith Project is strengthening generations in faith and bringing beautiful changes to the communities around them. Through teaching, mentoring and coaching, many are finding out who they are and who they are destined to be. They are bringing more to their world. David Campbell is the key leader in this initiative and you can support him financially directly through Awakening Ministries.
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