Ministry 101 - Wineskins

A longtime pastor friend of mine recently asked if I would bring some of my materials from my years of church consulting to work through with his elders. As I thought about it, I told him that I wouldn't use anything from my past, that there is much better resources available now.

I have recently thought more about this. Jesus talked about putting new wine into old wine skins. The church is different today than when I was consulting with churches. Change occurs much more rapidly, or at least it should, and while the purpose remains the same, churches are much more varied in the way they carry it out through individual vision.

Certainly there are leadership principles that transcend time, but tools to implement them and ways to communicate them change.

An example of how things change occurred to me yesterday when I picked up a book I have on the parables and metaphors of Christ. As I began to read it, I realized that this old book (I got from an older pastor's library), was basically written in a different language. It was in English, but not the language we speak today, and certainly not the Bible version I use for reading or for study. I wasn't grasping the message because I was having to concentrate so hard on the language. The message may be terrific, but if our hearers have to reinterpret it in their minds and then re-apply its meaning, so much is lost, and way to much effort has been spent (A lot could be said here about how we present the Gospel today).

I am in a sense, re-learning ministry. There is much that I can apply from the experience of my past, but the tools for today demand willingness to re-learn and to re-apply. Fortunately, there are great speakers and writers today who articulate well the principles for leadership in the church. Some things are still applicable and I love it when I here them again in new forms.

The bottom line is that we must continually learn to apply principles in a changing world. Don't assume what you learned before can be shared in the manner you learned it and that it will be understood. Application is much more important today than theory, but the theory must still be explained so the application will be effective. I'm not saying that we should never read old books, but we need to take full advantage of what is available today!