Times are Serious by Gary Goodell

 

Times are Serious by Gary Goodell

 

I have been involved in church and outreach ministry for almost sixty years being a part of many waves, outpourings and movements of God, and the last two decades committed to revival and reformation.

I am by no means a novice or anti-church, but as an older or elder in this current move, I am witnessing some shifts that I have never seen or observed before. Particularly in terms of how we view the church and what part it has to play in the next generations.

These cultural shifts all around us are getting way too serious, and our response must be different, must be changed.

It is way too late to just adjust the seating, or reset the thermostat or turn down the sound system.

A different kind of radical response is now required by the leaders of the program-driven, pastor-centered franchises of weekend-church. We can no longer ignore what are now being called the "dones" and the "nones."

Those Christians who have left the weekend meeting because they are "done" with being lectured to as the ignorant masses in the great pew-pulpit divide, and are now willing to check the box on the survey form, next to the religious affiliation, "none."

This is the next generation who want to talk, not sit in bored silence. This is the next generation who want participate in the journey of following Jesus, not just view the home movies from someone else's Summer Missions trip.

This is urgent! They are leaving in masses from the sanctuary where they "sit, soak, and sour."

Does anyone notice, they have left the building? Or do we follow or forget the "dones" and "nones" as though we never knew them?

We need a different kind of revival, not just for the lost in the harvest, but for us, the blood-washed body of Christ. The older generation (the boomers or whatever you choose to call yourselves) must have our thinking radically changed, and our actions revolutionized.

Times are serious, and need to stand for some serious changes in how we believe and how we behave, as we navigate this next move of God.