Old School ...rantings that have been a long time coming(LONG)

Times have changed. Things that once were just the norm are now being tabbed as old school or worse yet for my generation, "tradition". I know that I grew up different. I have known for about 5-6 years that I grew up in a time capsule. It was like my parents, family and church that I went to throughout my adolescent years was put in a box by Doc Brown as he fired up the flux capacitor. As I went to church, there was no missing church for sporting events. Not even Wednesday nights. We didn't have "other responsibilities" that trumped church. I wasn't involved in 4-H or anything else that would have stopped me from being at church Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesday night. That is not even counting another thing that seems lost among this generation, revival. We have had one since I have been here at Shiloh. Why don't we have more? Because the people don't come! We have the same people that were not stuck in a time capsule that always went "whenever the church doors were open".

Now, there are some things that bother me with this whole thing. I will list them in bullet form so you won't get bored.

• I don't understand how someone puts extra curricular activities above the church. I know I know...I have been told that I don't understand. Times are different now and that's just the way it is. I don't like it and I never will. Am I saying that you need to be in church every time the doors open? No, but church SHOULD BE HIGH ON YOUR PRIORITY LIST!!! It is not optional for a Christian. Why? Because Christ ordained it...it is his bride, who he is coming back for.
• We never went on too many vacations growing up. We never had family reunions because every sunday was a family reunion at church. So I can't say much about things like that because we never had them.
• My grandpa is 80+ years old. He worked in the coal mines in West Virginia. The best word that would describe him is solid. He is a rock. However, time and age has caught up with him and sometimes seems to pass him. Whenever I visit him he talks about how much it upsets him to not be able to go to church. He can't sit there for very long or else he would be in pain for the rest of the week. I call that dedication! What is going to happen when all of the people that are dedicated to church like that are gone? I'll tell you what...it has already begun: sunday morning church only lasting 1 hour or else people get irrated because they have places to go, sunday night services are vanishing like Jimmy Hoffa and I don't know if they will ever be found again...revivals are a thing of the past it seems...soon, sunday morning services will be just done through podcasts and the person never has to step foot in a sanctuary again.
• Oh for more people in my generation that call themselves missional, and all of the rest of the emergent gooblygook...would step up and realize that relevance is not important as they think. We are, in my opinion, too caught up in trying to be relevant to all people. What ever happened to preparing and letting God make it relevant to the people? It seems that sometimes we try to become the Holy Spirit and spoon feed our congregations.
• Two more things and I will be done. One, the Wesleyan Church and holiness or rather entire sanctification. When I went through my ordination meetings with the different pastors from the district, I had to fill out all this paperwork and then I came to this assignment page. Here is what it said that I needed to do: Write a reflection paper on entire sanctification, and list 20 books that I had on the topic. I am all for preaching a second work of grace. I am all for living a holy life. I am all for people striving for entire sanctification. However, are we so focused on the second work that the first one isn't something we are interested in anymore in America? It seems to me that we have relegated that to "missions" work. Pastor John read a quote a few months ago and I adapted it: " We have become so worried about the second work of grace while half of the world hasn't heard of the first one yet!" Preach holiness, live holiness, just don't forget salvation.
• Lastly, church planting or church growth. This is a thing that probably is old school in me so skip it if you want. The Wesleyan church is all about church planting. I think it is great...peoples lives have been changed and people have been reached that otherwise wouldn't have. I realize that. However, I feel that we put more energy, money and time into church planting than church regrowth. Like the church that recently closed in Wabash, Indiana. I think it might have been the church that my dad and mom pastored in the late 70's. We need to do CPR on some of these churches instead of essentially throwing them away and having more "children". Have more church plants but don't forget about the struggling churches in the district while you are at it.

SMYG.