THE OLD GROUP
I want to take some of the ideas from my friend Marcus Lawson and share them with you, and dialog with some of his concepts myself as they pertain to the reality of church life in the second decade of the 21st C. I hope the brief overview will be helpful.
Every church or ministry that is over 4 years old has an “old group,” those people who love the Lord and have sincere motives, but feel like they must have their say in case anything gets too far out of hand. These people love the thing they call church, but are unwilling to admit how they must change-or that change is even necessary.
I talk to many pastors and folks who attend traditional denominational or even charismatic churches about this. While they always acknowledge how their pastor “preaches the truth” and that he “really wants God” they often diverge into mentioning the “old group” who really runs the church. When the pastor starts to preach about miracles or healing, they rise up and straighten him out. And if he goes too far outside of their comfort-zone, they stage a walkout while making sure they inform everyone why they had to leave. Too often phase three is to say the pastor has come under the influence of the devil, and try to destroy his career and family in the process.
Unfortunately our current church system fosters this behavior because instead of challenging people, discipling them and encouraging them to mature, they are kept busy and happy doing anything except being equipped to actually do the work of the ministry. That way they stay immature and struggle with anything new. A spiritual person is given to constant change, but a natural person is content with keeping “things the way they are.”
We make a grave error when we think that those who don’t like change or new things are simply being cautious or more conservative. It is possible that instead, they are filled with fear and unbelief!? As Christians we must love change and be willing to keep changing! The Scriptures teach us that as a natural person does not even understand the “things of the Spirit,” it is clear our God is a God of new beginnings and this requires change.
In more ways than one, we have been left behind in the things of the Kingdom. Apostolic Christianity born of a Kingdom message and a biblically accurate gospel is erupting in Africa, South America, Asia and even Russia, but is slow to be received in the American religious system, and occasionally it takes the outside eyes of others to help us see our spiritual deficiencies.
In the 1990s thousands of missionaries from other nations flooded the United States to help prepare us for a spiritual awakening. These missionaries to America came here to preach the gospel of the Kingdom, declaring God’s reign and describing His ways and means. While the gospel preaches salvation in Jesus, it also calls us to a higher level of commitment to the advancement of His Kingdom in the earth.
