All Change?!?!?!?!?

There is always arguements within the Christian Church about change. Is it a good thing or a bad thing? Some argue that if it is not broken then we should not fit it. Others joke - how many Christians would it take to change a light bulb? the response - change, whats change?!? No one would want to admit to thinking we should change things for the sake of it, and no one would want to make changes that would disrupt the whole of the Christian Church, and damage what God has been doing.

Local Supermarkets will often change their products to different places in the store - why - because we notice it, and in that will often see products we have not seen before. Whilst on summer placement at Ashford in 2004, Cadet Nick Hanover, commented on how he was encouraged that things were always different at our cente, because it made things fresh and alive, and new. Maybe it is not about change, its about being different! After all, if everything is always the same, will people notice? If our church communities are always offering the same 'old' things - will people take them up? It is important that we are fresh and alive - simply because our God, that we preach and we serve, is alive, is attractive, is relevant to every generation. Someone once said, that whatever it takes, they will do it, if it gets someone into the Kingdom. The methods of our early forefathers in the Christian Church, and the early Salvationists, certainly got them noticed - it got some of them into prison because they upset so many......

Is it good to be different? Recently many have commented from other Salvation Army Corps, that Ashford Salvation Army is different! But we are assured that is okay. We may do things in a different way, we may look a little different, BUT, we have to say that there are a number of people taking notice. Within the church community people have gone deeper in their relationship with Jesus - some event commenting that they have started to have one. After a recent week of prayer someone who has been attending the church for some years, many years, text our senior leaders to say 'thank you for helping me to get to know Jesus and see Jesus in a very different way'. Something was different for this lady to see that. At a recent gathering of our prayer team, one of the members, again a long time attender of the church, commented on how what she sees now is very different to some years ago. That is not because everything has changed - because our God is the same, yesterday, today and forever - but He is also alive and at work in the world today - so He will make Himself known in different ways. It is our role as a church to ensure that we are not different in a rebellious way, but are different in a living way - to be able to reach the people other groups cannot reach in the way the Christian Gospel can - and to be able to reach the world, in a way that only Christ can do so!

So, yes we are different - and we are proud to be. By rearranging the presentation of the 'goods' we have seen established Christians find faith alive, we have seen new people find Jesus Christ, we have seen children and young people getting passionate about their Jesus, we have seen people link to our various mission programme activities, and asking questions they would not have at groups that other organisations provide. We do not apologise for being a Christian Church, and we are proud to be part of The Salvation Army.

After all, a former senior leader within The Salvation Army wrote what we believe: I dare to be different, I dare to believe, I dare to be different, God's Spirit receive; I dare to be different, my life sacrificied, I dare to be different, by living like Christ! (Commissioner Harry Read)

Would be great to hear how being different has helped you to see Jesus!