The building where my church meets is a very traditional building, complete with stained glass windows--including the ever popular Jesus window. This is fitting.
The gathering now known as Torrance First Baptist has been gathering for 91 years. During those decades much ministry has been done. People have been trained. People have met God. Lives have been changed.
During those decades resistance--sometimes selfish and sinful--has raised its often ugly head. This is one of those times.
For those who walked the earth during many of those 91 years, the changes proposed by our leadership make little to no sense. For those whose lives are more recent, the changes seem almost too late.
Somehow, we must walk in both worlds: integrating the rich history and the rich present. History--tradition--is important. It gives us language to understand and explain what is going on. But we do not live in history. We live now.
God calls us to live now. To expand his kingdom now, here, in the place where we are. This does not discount the great need in other places of the world and we can certainly partner with others to reach those places. But only one congregation is right on the southeast corner of Manuel and Carson. We are that congregation and we must be where we are.
This is what I will tell the detractors any chance I get. This is what I will tell my students. This is what I will tell myself.
We do and must live at the intersection of history and today. And each must have its proper voice.
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