The Modern Church

This past Sunday, our church had a special speaker by the name of Tony Sutherland. He is one of the worship pastors at Free Chapel in the Atlanta area with Jentzen Franklin. His message was amazing. He had a lot of good stuff to say that challanged me personally. One of the things that spoke to me the most was what he said about the mission of the church. In today's times it is very popular to have a "modern church". What is a modern church? A church with loud music? A church that serves Starbucks? Who cares if you serve Starbucks. Starbucks makes its own product better than you do and the atmosphere is better too. The modern church thrives on being a church with young people and the latest everything. If a church prides itself on having a congregation filled with 20 & 30 year olds what happens when those 20 & 30's become 50? They will no longer fit in and will be looked at as non-relevant. The fact is that the modern church is nowhere in Scripture; however, another type of church is. In the book of Joel we read that in the last days, sons and daughters will prophecy and old men will have visions... The last days church has a place for everyone. God is calling the elderly and mature to have visions and the children to prophecy. This is the will of God and any church that excludes any age group is acting outside of that. It is imperative that we run our churches as a place that makes children, youth, young adults and seniors a vital part of the ministry of the church.