The New Normal

In this past week’s reading in the Monkey Book by Carl Trueman, a very important idea is raised concerning our churches’ mindsets. In the past week, I personally have been challenged to examine how I and my church(es) look at how our church functions. A speaker whom I heard over the weekend (Dr. Gene Getz) challenged us to be content where God has placed our church, in whatever situation we find ourselves, and to not change what we, as a church, are doing just for the sake of change - the “new thing” -  but to actually have a reason, a purpose, for changing something in the church (ex. forms of worship). This week’s chapter of Trueman’s book seemed to correspond to those messages so well, as Truman writes, “The routine of the ordinary, the boring, the plodding, is actually the norm for church life...” (pgs. 30-31). The glamorous, busy, complex, exciting big-ness of large churches is great, but many small church bodies find themselves pressured by popular trends to amp up their efforts and become bigger churches, in the process changing everything from music to leadership. Trueman, however, makes the point that smaller churches need to realize that their ordinary routines are what God has given them as their service to Him and that in order to glorify God, churches need to be content with all that they’ve been given and, in return, give their all to God.