The Times They Are A Changin
By Bill Easum
Everyone knows how much and how fast everything is changing these days, or at least they should. But unless you have lived through the changes they may not seem so dramatic to you.
Last year I completed 50 years of ministry. I preached my first sermon December 25, 1956 at Oak Hills Baptist Church outside of Austin, Texas. The text was John 3:16. It was an awful message, but it was my message and I can’t tell you what that hour meant to me.
In 1956:
· most churches were still growing
· Most pastors still hadn’t been to seminary
· Most pastors were paid less than school teachers (average teacher’s salary was 5373.59)
· the local church was often the hub of the community
· people dressed up to go to church and found it impolite to talk in church (except the Pentecostals)
· The cold war was in progress
· The Middle East was embroiled in war (what’s new)
· Very few women were pastors and most of those who were, were Pentecostal
· No mainline church would be caught dead doing rock and roll worship
· it wasn’t cool to cuss or call women a b…..( I still don’t think it is)
· it wasn’t cool to ridicule Christianity, cool actually meant it was sort of chilly
· there weren’t any Mosks in the country
· Blacks (that was the preferred name then) had to drink out of separate fountains, set at the back of the buss, and enter through the backdoor (very sad)
· No one had heard of terrorists or wormholes or space walks
· 9-11 was just another date in the calendar
· TV was just catching on but you still had to view it through the snow
· Very few homes had air conditioning except the window
· We were just on the verge of the 60s but the church didn’t have a clue
· The first Black person was allowed into my high school
· Lawrence Welk was still the cat’s meow
· Viet Nam was looming on the horizon
· There was room for only four computers in the world (according to IBM chairman in 1943)
· No one had heard of Iraq, Emergent, Multi site, religious right.
· The internet wasn’t even a gleam in anyone’s eye
· Commercial airline traffic was in its infancy
· John F. Kennedy was a Senator that few people in my part of the world knew anything about yet
· Motown was taking the country by storm
· Email had never been heard of
· A postcard cost a penny and a letter 3 cents
I could go on but you get the point- things have radically changed. Most of the basic things we use today weren’t in existence when I began my ministry.
The problem is most churches still have that 1950s look, even many of those that were started in the least twenty years. Some people never learn.
I’ve tried to stay up with the change, in fact that has been the main stay of my ministry when I was a pastor and now as a consultant. I’ve spent hours browsing the headlines, reading hundreds of books a year, and listening to the voices of society as well as that still small voice.. I wish more people would listen to the sounds of change.
What do the above items say to you about the changes churches must address today in order to indigenous to the culture? If the word “indigenous” might be new to you why not search our site for the word www.easumbandy.com ?
On my next post I will share some of my comments and predictions about future ministry made back as far as 1993, 17 years ago, and see what has transpired since then.