various characteristics are discern ible in the members of any congre gation. What needs to be seen is a joining together supernaturally in Jesus Christ of ourselves with one another. Such union does not come from everyone having the same cultural background, or from all liking the same kind of music, and using an identical vocabulary. Such things are simply superficial. Our oneness in the service of Cod and the local church is the Holy Spirit working in and through us to fulfill His eternal purpose. Finding such differences and personality idio syncrasies should not cause us dis may but rather encourage us to concentrate on what really binds us together in the pursuing of God's purpose through our Lord Jesus Christ. THE ORDEAL OF CHANGE No matter what our position in life, all of us resist change. Vari ances from the tradition bother us. We like things to remain the same. One reason for this is the fact that we are creatures of habit. Instinc tively and automatically there is a fear of the unknown. Basic to every human personality is a never-end ing desire for permanence. The Word of God assures us that the Lord is the same yesterday, today, and forever; He changes not. Change is more evident today than ever before in the history of man. We cannot help but reflect on the truth of the hymn writer's words, “Change and decay in all around I see, Oh, Thou who changest not, abide with me." Paul declared, "We look not at things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the
things which are seen are tempor ary, but the things which are not seen are eternal." The Apostle was not a pessimist but a realist. It is strange that so few in this world prepare for the inevitable. A re porter interviewed a man celebrat ing his 100th birthday. "Sir," he observed, "you must have seen a lot of changes in your time." The centinarian avowed, "You bet, son ny, and I was 'agin' every one of them!" (No doubt there are a lot of pastors who feel they have peo ple like that in their church!) It has been well said that, "Change is the child of discovery. It thrives in the environment of in vestigation and innovation." Today, as never before, the church faces important changes. Let us be care ful that we are making the right adjustments, and are not just "changing for the sake of change." There are some things about the work of God that are absolute. These must never be varied or min imized. The message of salvation by grace through faith should nev er be tampered with. Man's sin does not change; his basic needs have never been altered. Termin ology may be brought up to date if it will facilitate communication, but not the cardinal doctrines on which our faith has its foundations. Back in Alabama and Tennessee where I grew up, we used to have tent meetings attended by great swarms of people. Such a method today is not practical, and to some it is unacceptable. It is a fact that difficulties arise when attachments that are proper to faith are trans ferred uncritically to methods of work. There is a danger of deter mining spirituality based only on the adherence to certain practices which are almost ritualistic in their Page 31
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