NEW WINE IN NEW WINESKINS

 

“No one pours new wine in old wineskins.

If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined.

No, he pours the wine into new wineskins.”

(Mark 2:22)

 

I am going to offer a simple paraphrase of the above scripture: change is difficult.  In the case of traditional, mainline, churches I might even say change is not only difficult but usually impossible.  If you are offended or disagree with this I would suggest that you either have your head in the sand or have not driven around any major American city.  I live in north Dallas, and as I drive through the neighborhood I see dozens of churches that are shells of what they once were.  Even on Sunday mornings the parking lots are half-full.  We have lived in Dallas for over twenty-five years and over that time I have seen three Lutheran Church Missouri Synod churches close.  A once vibrant Evangelical Lutheran Church in our neighborhood closed its door.  The city bought the property and now a new fire station and charter school occupy the site. 

While it is easy to get discouraged, today I am feeling much more positive and upbeat.  I see reasons for hope.  Last week I saw multiple examples of “new wine in new wineskins.”

On Wednesday I attended a meeting of local pastors and other missional minded church leaders.  We meet monthly to share stories, study the word and pray for each other.  On this occasion there were fifteen of us.  The encouraging thing is that with three exceptions, they all are involved in church planting efforts.  These are not traditional church plants where you put up a church or rent a building than then hope people will come.  All are involved in missional living.  They live in apartment communities getting to know the residents and inviting them to join small group.  Another lives in a suburban neighborhood, ministering to the people who live around them.  In many cases these will never be chartered, organized churches.  Rather they will continue to be missional communities.  In many cases the pastors will be bi-vocational, holding full or part-time jobs to supplement their income.

On Thursday I flew to Phoenix of the annual Best Practices Conference, hosted by Christ Lutheran Church.  The gathering is a marketplace of ministries.  It was encouraging to hear of so many churches that are reaching the lost in new and innovative ways.  Most are new ministries driven by a specific need or target group within their community.  Some are even established churches that have found ways to adapt to the changing needs of the world. 

For decades most churches have operated from the old model (old wineskin).  You put up a building, and place a sign out front announcing the new home of “fill in the blank” church.  You then set out to establish a Sunday school, youth program and adult Bible studies.  The church baptizes infants, confirms their youth, marries their young adults, educates their children and then eventually buries them.  That model no longer works.  In the Millennial World, all the rules have changed.  Now we are called to live as missionaries in a culture that is very foreign.  We are called to be Jesus in this time and place.