In my role
as a professor and now a dean, I often have the privilege of spending time with
church planters and visiting their churches. As a former pastor, I used to envy
those brave souls who boldly went out in faith to start new churches from
nothing and saw them thrive and reach hundreds where established pastors
struggled to grow by one or two. It hardly seems fair, yet Jesus gives us a
hint in the well-known parables of the patch and the wineskin: The new can
adapt and adjust to dramatic change.
Cotton cloth
that has not been pre-soaked will stretch a great deal in those early washings.
I have destroyed many otherwise beautiful garments in my attempts to do laundry
without reading labels. A new patch will shrink where an old garment will not.
Likewise a new leather skin will stretch in response to the gases from
fermentation when a skin that has already been stretched will break.
Notice that
Jesus is not saying the old is bad here. In fact, he says just the opposite:
“The old is good enough [for those who have tasted it].” (Luke 5:39) Those
children of God who have faithfully served, prayed, loved, and given need to be
honored and have a place where they can worship together authentically. That
church just may not be as adaptable to reach the unchurched and younger
generations. Much of the debate between church planters and established church
leaders stems from a misunderstanding: Flexible or durable, we each have a
critical role to play in the Kingdom of God.
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