Then and Now

Then;

We remember Old School- they ran church on volunteers, people volunteered their services, time, and talent.

People came to prayer meetings and Bible study, choir rehearsals, they were in church on Sunday morning, afternoon, and sometimes evenings too. Some denominations would tarry and wait at the altar for the Holy Spirit. They had all-night Prayer and covered dish meals.

Only the Pastor was paid a little and a part of that was the Parsonage. A beat-up house next to the church, owned by the church which meant folk could come over anytime a day and disturb the family. They expected to eat, be counseled, prayed for, and served. There were very few benefits if any and if that Pastor died unexpectantly his wife and children were put out in preparation for the new pastor, many times in poverty.

The church was not a money-making organization so there were lots of building funds.

Different denominations functioned a bit differently, even different races of church people would function a bit differently but with some of the same basic structure.

People were very committed to their home church and would put the pastor out before they would leave. They had tent crusades and people with bull horns preaching in the streets.

Now;

We now live in a time where the mindset of ‘enlarge my territory’ has become a part of the church culture. name it, claim it has been the chant for a generation now. People want the best service and the nicest properties.

Some pastors with large churches have their own planes, they have their own ministries on television, they are authors. Some are personal coaches, advising politicians and businesses with watered-down biblical and psychological advice. We are encouraged to have the best and want the best. Church has become a place to network and share your business. We have a generation of pastors who were trained on how to make church user-friendly. Even small churches that didn’t need two services had them to give people options and be more appealing. Larger churches paid people to babysit and minister to their children during service. There is not a lot of all-night prayers, the witnessing that is done is supposedly done via TV programs, not in the street witnessing. People share prayer requests but don’t come to prayer. They want meals catered not covered dish because Sunday is their day to rest. They are tired. Many come to church now and then as they want to, only handfuls in prayer, fewer in Bible Study, very few witnesses. They want a wide variety of ministries to serve them.

People are not very committed because they can just hop over to the next church with nicer carpet, they will leave and not even tell people or the pastor that they have left.

Small churches like ours with not much money have people with the same expectations that those have at the larger churches. The older saints who were used to working and giving their best are tired, sick, and dying. Many times, they are the ones giving and praying. We started out all working together especially when we moved into 141. We presented the vision over and over, but people seemed to want the vision with their agenda.

Because we are both counselors, we tend to attract wounded people, God gave a vision to Pastor C of something fresh which is not old school or new school it was back to the Word. Every aspect of FACCI was built on the Word. That is why we have different names for things. Attendants instead of ushers, Zemirah instead of the worship team Gibbor and Candace instead of the Men’s and women’s ministry.

All were based on words found in the Old and the New Testaments.

Both Old school and New School have their strengths and weaknesses. We are now going back to the vision God gave since it is the only reason we are pastoring and the Biblical version of church.

We must bridge the two generations, be mindful of the strengths and weaknesses of both and get back intentionally and consistently to the original vision God gave.

Diagnosis – God is changing things, the world all around us, the church, each of us. This is a season of transition.

Destination – Biblical model – God has not changed, His expectations are the same, we must be counterculture, even counter church culture. We need to look again at the vision He gave Pastor C

Differences – This is an intergenerational vision, some of it may not be done while we are here. So, we must work within the confines of what workers we have. In the past, I have tried to make sure all 7 branches were working and all 7 ministries under each functioning.

Sometimes we do not have the leaders, volunteers, or commitment level to do something –

New – we will only do what we have workers and helpers to do. We will assess our systems more with those working in them. As pastors we will be more transparent – more honest about our expectations.

We will not be carrying and catering to customer mentality. There will be a new emphasis on prayer. We must be doers of the Word.

Both Old school and New School have their strengths and weaknesses. We are now going back to the vision God gave since it is the only reason we are pastoring and the Biblical version of church.

So, we must bridge the two generations, be mindful of the strengths and weaknesses of both and get back intentionally and consistently to the original vision God gave.

We are only responsible for what the Lord tells each of us to do, He is our judge. We sang this song at the very first service. We now say it again. “Lord, we acknowledge you, we don’t know what to do. But our eyes are on you. We have not been this way; each step is strange and new, but our eyes are on you.