A Moment With Pastor Fred

The TV commercial saw the young girl looking from the upstairs banister as her parents were frantically trying to  assemble a bicycle in the living room Christmas Eve. Her frustrated father said there was no way he could put it together without the instructions.  Mom was looking through the box, paper and plastic to no avail. Dad suggested they just put it away and wait for her birthday in a few months. But the girl saw on the side of the box in large letters www:bike.com. Quickly she went back to her bedroom, booted up her computer and printed out the instructions floating them to her frazzled parents below. She smiled as she heard her dad say, “Here they are!”  

That commercial perfectly illustrates how generations see things differently. And how each generation views life impacts how we do ministry. We cannot, we must not minister the same way the church did in 1965. Not that what we did in 1965 was wrong – it’s just not 1965. Wishing things could go back to how they were won’t help. Since we evaluate everything based on what the Bible teaches we must answer the question – “is this cultural or biblical?”  Methods are many, principles are few. Methods always change. Principles never do. 

Some churches unfortunately have seen change as compromise and remain stuck in the past. Others concede on matters of truth and the message is distorted. Both are  ditches one can fall into. We here at HBC seek to be culturally relevant while biblically grounded. How we do ministry is based on God’s Word. Our methodology is influenced by our theology.