Wishing you an E.P.I.C New Year!

Sometimes I wonder if we think that the Church is here for us, forgetting that we are the Church, and we are here for the world. Here we are, entering the 7th year of the New Millennium. It is a whole new world out there. Some churches act with the following spirit: “Stop the world, the church wants to get on.” But the world refuses to stop.
Instead we must realize that our God does not play “catch up” with the world around. He is always ahead. It’s time the church speeds up, gets ahead, and let the world get on and get in to be reached.
In any transition there are 5 mechanisms of dealing with change:
Hold out.
Keep out.
Move out.
Close out.
Reach out.
Regardless which turn the culture takes the only option we have is to reach out. And to reach out we must know where this world is.
So, let’s get up to speed in this New Year. The culture around us can be defined in 4 realities:
Experiential Participatory Image-driven Connecting
Case in point would be the TV mega-hit show “Who wants to be a Millionaire?” where viewers and participants are invited to share experience together, where “lifelines” connect studio and TV audience with contestants for direct participation, where an image of a Million bucks, and the lifestyle of a millionaire is well known and appealing, where even lone individual on the center stage is connected with the audience community rooting for him/her.
Living such an E.P.I.C. life our Church would be Biblically Absolute and Culturally Relevant. As I reflect on these four characteristics of the postmodern world I am encouraged to see that our Ministry in the 21st century has more in common with the passion of the 1st century Apostolic Church, than with the modern secular world collapsing all around us.
As we move into the future – let us encourage each other about Our Lord Jesus Who is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8) and His timeless truths are always timely. His Ancient Words are ever true - changing me, and changing you.
I wish you all an E.P.I.C. New Year!