Sirens for the City

My new city & home, Springfield, has had a pretty rough six months in regards to the weather. A couple tornaoes ripped through parts of the city last March, and then about six weeks ago got nailed again with the hurricane-type storms that hit the midwest.

One thing that happened during the first tornadoes was that a lot of the warning sirens were destroyed, and the city is now in the middle of putting up new, louder, and significantly more sirens in the city. The article can be read here: http://www.sj-r.com/Sections/News/Stories/94523.asp

So it got me thinking about my new church plant. In a sense, we're like the new sirens that are going up. We have a vision of permeating throughout the city to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We want to be loud about it. We want to reach new areas and people. We want people to be saved from eternal destruction.

Sadly, there are some churches that are like the old sirens. Their ability to proclaim the Gospel has been reduced to a whisper. They have trouble keeping up with changing culture around them. One big storm could come along and take them out.

I have a vision for these older, godly churches. My vision for them is about investing their remaining life, energy, and resources into newer, younger churches with fresh vision and energy to reach Springfield for Jesus. It includes the godly saints in these churches providing much needed direction and mentoring for the younger saints (like Titus 2 encourages churches to do). What better way for chuches with a rich history of winning souls for Jesus to continue their legacy?

What this will take is the younger churches to not be so cocky & arrogant, and to see the value in the saints that have gone before us. This will take the older saints to not be so resistant to change and to just hold onto what they've had for so long, but to be open to new methods of reaching people who need Jesus. It's about being inter-dependant on each other, and not making silly "generational" wars over things like music and engaging non-believers on their own turf.

So, I would like to encourage you younger saints to find an older saint and get to know them and see the tremendous value they could be in your life. I also encourage the older saints to seek out younger saints and look past the outward generational differences and see their hearts who want to love people like Jesus did. And I encourage all us to meditate on Titus 2 this week as well.

Grace & peace,

Ryan