Have you ever come across someone who was stuck in the past? Or so preoccupied with the future that they missed the present? Or so focused on the present that they forgot the past and ignored the future? Lately it seems I have been running into people who are stuck in an ideological time machine. Whether they are too focused on being “cutting-edge” (whatever that means to them), or they are like Brendan Fraser in Blast from the Past who just walked out of a bomb shelter from 35 years ago, they seem to be crossing my path and raising my blood pressure.
James 4:13-17 still says…
Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. So then, if you know the good you ought to do and don’t do it, you sin. (TNIV)
So here is what I ask of all of those who are stuck in their ideological time machine…
(1) Understand that you CAN Contend AND Contextualize.
(2) Stop harassing those who are trying to be Biblically faithful and culturally relevant (and contrary to what you might think you can do both…just look at Paul in Athens)
(3) Be open to methods and concepts that are not your own. Test it, but make sure you check it out before you reject it as “selling out” or “compromise” or “heresy” or “wordliness.”
Basically I’m asking you to think like a missionary…to be Missional (some of you just got goose bumps (or got angry) from me even using that word.
Can we please make the church a non-time machine zone?
Radical Renovation 