Allow me to share a pet peeve of mine: often times, curricula, books, or ministry personalities are described as "cutting edge" or some similar adjective. The it's not that there doesn't exist some thinking or approaches to ministry that's truly cutting edge. But for some reason, the American church is obsessed with what's new. Now, we can't grow complacent about being students of culture, trying new things for the sake of the Kingdom, or just plain giving our all when it comes to telling people about Jesus. But our obsession with the "new" and "cutting edge" goes beyond that. It's as though we've forgotten about the things that never change, the things that we can truly put our hope in. Sometimes it seems that we believe God himself is changing, or that Jesus' words to us have somehow changed over the past 2,000 years. Perhaps it would be helpful for a reminder of a couple of things that will never, ever change:
Jesus. Of course, the other two members of the Trinity will never change, either. But I highlight Jesus, because we are often tempted to tweak Jesus just a little bit. We might not always go as far as heresy, but we will often show only certain shades of Jesus that are a bit more agreeable to our palate. Jesus never changes, and neither does the fact that much of what he does in the Gospels is just as life changing as it is puzzling.
The Bible. Don't be fooled by all those Bibles you have on your shelf. The Bible doesn't change. Obviously, translations change, and our access and understanding to various manuscripts change. But the Bible--inspired by God in the original manuscripts--never change. And another thing that never changes: that hearts are changed when people read the Bible.
May our hope be squarely placed in those things which are unchanging, rather than in that which is "new" and "cutting edge."
