Todd Rhoades, a prolific blogger on matters of faith, recently reminded his readers of the importance of churches doing ministry in the present using 2014 friendly approaches. Not only is Rhoades troubled by congregations that behave more like what one would expect in 1984, 1994, or 2004, he also believes many congregations that have moved beyond those years but are not quite up to date are nuts:
If you’re using the same communication methods, technology, music, delivery style, and format that you did five years ago… you’re nuts.
So What?
While I would not use “nuts” language to describe congregations that are behaving today as they did five years ago, I would suggest that uncritically continuing to do ministry in the same way for any length of time is problematic.
If you were to analyze the overall mission and ministry of your local congregation and suggest a year that it most closely reflects, what year would you choose? Explain.