New Wine in Old Wineskins – Building the Church of Jesus Christ
Posted by Pastor Pat on April 1, 2009
“No one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wine will burst the skins,
and the wine is lost and the skins as well; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.”
Read Mark 2:18-22
As a pastor of a long standing fellowship (50 plus years), I find this thought, “New Wine in Old Wineskins,” a persistent tension in today’s church. In failing to differentiate between the message of the gospel and the manner in which it is celebrated, we have generational divide and church families that are only one age and thus one dimensional. This is not the Church Jesus builds. Churches are to be generationally diverse and, if community dictates, ethnically varied. No one would ever think of having a church of only men or only women or only children. This would be unwise and foolish.
Any church that targets, and or has, only one thing will become stagnant and predictable. Such a church is either dying or dead. How can we keep a generationally diverse fellowship and still celebrate the gospel of Jesus Christ? It has been a grievous thing to see the young and the old leave the church because of change or non-change. Either the change is too fast or the church is not changing fast enough. Either way everyone loses. The gospel is not changing, but the manner in which it is celebrated must change and that change might happen every twenty years.
