Being Very Serious (Part 37)

We always equate a youth movement with a fresh aspect on ministry? Hey, I was there 45 years ago when you had to preach a certain way and look a certain way or you would not be accepted in the ministry. I understood knowing your place back then as a minister in a state and where you were in the pecking order. I also knew the frustration of wanting change in leadership when I was younger and never seeing it develop because we wouldn't make those changes at the General Assembly or on the state level. It gets very frustrating to all young ministers when they feel their generation is not represented.

Yet, no matter how much we talk about change, from generation to generation, we always fall back into the same pattern. The names may change, but the scenario is still the same. We get certain people in leadership (regardless of age) and keep rotating them back and forth until they retire (if they ever do). It puzzles me that the ones that talk about change the most never do accept it or vote for it. Again, each generation has done the same thing year after year. So if we inject new blood into the system, it stays there on one board or another for more years than we care to remember. With the increase in tenures, before we know it, the same rules will apply to our standing boards and committees in our states. I loved Strom Thurmond here in SC and in spite of his faults he was a great political leader. But his tenure did not end as well as it should have. He represented us in Washington well for a long time, but almost too long.

Just as in my youth I hear today we need fresh leadership-younger men who are aggressive, progressive, and not as possessive of territory as former generations. They know the tech, how to draw the crowds, and how to motivate people by enticing them with various ministries. They have the education, the charisma, and the means to make a difference according to some people I hear talk. Guess what? We said the same thing 40 years ago. I was a young preacher when Contemporary Christian music was birthed, when YPE became FTH, when praise and worship began to replace the convention book, and when we started clapping hands during a sermon instead of saying "Amen". My generation was one of the first to incorporate technology into our services and endured the battle over music styles and the need for specialized ministries. We didn't have many mega-churches, but most of our churches were twice the size they are now. We said back then we would change the system, the way we operated, and the way we did business. But in truth what did it get us?

Several of our churches are barely in existence today because the stuff we did then didn't keep our young people in our churches. Serving 4 different terms on the State Youth Board (yes, I was in that cycle) and working in Youth Camp for over 20  years I got to see a lot of our church kids grow up. Many of them as adults aren't in our churches today. We got specific in my generation with youth ministries, children's ministries, outreach, etc.-but many of our churches are just a shell of what they once were. As the older, committed generation has died off, the non-committed believers that have followed in most denominations go after the latest gospel fad or trend, the most charismatic pastor, or a louder music ministry. For some reason it has become popular to deemphasize the things that built our churches in the beginning so we could stay in tune with the times, but in doing so we bypassed many of the basics that built our churches.

So don't give me this junk about we need a youth movement in the COG leadership if we are to survive. What I'm about to say is not a coy answer, but the truth. We need to get back to being a praying church, a holy church, and whether you are young or old, a spirit-filled church. Without the power of the Holy Ghost we are in trouble. If we are lacking in any of these areas young or old leadership will not be able to help us in the long run. Politics are a part of the church just like they are in the world. Most people look at Camp Meeting schedules to see who the latest and greatest preachers are that are being pushed to go to Cleveland. However in 2016, the church needs to push aside the political machine and seek the face of God for our spiritual leadership internationally and stateside. If it's a young man God lays on your heart to vote for, then do it. If it's an older man, then do the same. Just don't vote for somebody because of their age or size of their ministry, but vote for the individuals God directs you to vote for. We can still change the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ regardless of who leads us denominationally, but it sure would help if they stand for what we believe and preach the full gospel.