Does It Matter If Your Church Feels Outdated?

God has placed you in this decade to do His work. Is your church proclaiming “Today is the day of salvation” in today’s words and methods?

By Scott McConnell

We often associate certain styles with a specific decade. This isn’t a generalization of our substance as a people but of form and fashion. Similarly, Lifeway Research asked churchgoers to describe their church’s activities and methods of ministry by selecting a decade. Some weren’t willing to make such a characterization, but more than 8 in 10 did.

For a church, this discussion is not about hair styles or clothing but methods. For example, “The 1950s called, and they want their Sunday School perfect attendance pins back.” Or, “The 1960s called and want their tambourine back.” You get the idea.

Before you glance at how many churchgoers selected each decade for their churches, answer the question for your church. As you think of your church’s activities and methods of ministry, which decade best describes your church?

The importance of the past

The Bible uses different forms of the word “remember” over 200 times. Important things have happened before today that we need to remember. Some are events we should continue to celebrate. Some are demonstrations of who God is that we cannot forget. And many are truths we need to continue to live out in our lives.

The decades question is not seeking to describe these truths. Truths of Scripture are the ancient boundary stones the Bible warns against moving. These beliefs should not move over time within a church. If they have moved, Scripture has a singular call to believers: Repent and return to the God of truth.

Similarly, the decades question is not focused on key moments in a church’s history. Remembering moments in a church’s history in which God clearly worked, where He clearly led, or where members were obedient are important. Similar events in the Old Testament prompted standing stones to get people to ask why the stone was stood up. Telling the stories of these God-honoring events reinforce a godly church culture.

Biblical truth and seminal moments in a church’s history are part of a church’s culture, but they are not the part that changes over time.

Deliverance from the past

In Isaiah 43:18, God says, “Do not remember the past events; pay no attention to things of old” (CSB). The context of this appeal is a section the CSB labels, “God’s Deliverance of Rebellious Israel.” God was promising to end the period of Babylonian captivity. The end of Israel’s punishment was near.

Often, we choose to keep songs, decorations, titles, and events because that’s the only way we’ve known. Sometimes we cherish the way we did something because it fit hard times in our lives when we desperately needed the church. We want to stay in that moment of refuge with the same vibes brought about by familiar sounds, colors, and even smells.

Yet there’s a reason God tells His people not to dwell on our past hardships, rebellion, or punishment. “Look, I am about to do something new; even now it is coming” (Isaiah 43:19, CSB). If we’re busy remembering the past and trying to stay there, we’ll miss what God is about to do.

Many Americans view churches as museums that preserve and celebrate the past. While we preserve and pass down ancient truths, our activities and methods of ministry don’t need to curate any decade in 20th-century America.

“While we preserve and pass down ancient truths, our activities and methods of ministry don’t need to curate any decade in 20th-century America.” — @smcconn Share on X

If we’re honest, each of those decades—if we were alive—included examples of our own rebellion. As God called Israel to stop identifying with their past rebellion and stop living in the shame of their punishment, He was inviting them to live in His present acts of redemption. He gives us this same invitation to close the chapter on our rebellious and shameful identity.

A willingness to change

So, if we are not going to hold on to past methods or at least not impose our favorites on others, we have to be open to change. For some, change sounds foreign. Again, I’m not advocating for changing anything biblical. Those beliefs should remain historical and traditional. But change is how God works.

How many ways did God conquer peoples for the nation of Israel? They only marched around one city blowing trumpets seven times. How many ways do the Gospels record Jesus healing a blind man? He could have used the same method, but His practice was to change.

There’s something about the type of change we should pursue that—the more we do it—will bring consistency and comfort. We should always be moving where God is working. When God is opening people’s spiritual eyes with a method, we should adopt it. When people are confused by an approach, we should seek God as to whether the approach can be clarified or needs to be ended.

Change or even the potential thought of making a change raises questions about our motives and God’s purposes. If our motive is our own comfort or pleasure, we have the wrong focus. If we are focused on God’s transformative work, change can renew us.

A new identity

The apostle Paul also described newness. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17, CSB). Paul was describing the new creation in which belief in Jesus Christ can transform an individual.

If that newness ended with our salvation, then staying in the decade of our salvation would make sense. But Paul goes on to give believers a job of being Christ’s ambassadors as God makes His appeal through us. That appeal must always be current. “See, now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation!” (2 Corinthians 6:2b, CSB).

It’s as if Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians is weighing in on what the best answer to the decade question is. Our ministry efforts should be in the here and now. They should be current. As we appeal to new people to be saved, our emphasis should be today.

“Our ministry efforts should be in the here and now. They should be current. As we appeal to new people to be saved, our emphasis should be today.” — @smcconn Share on X

In the same way our culture will take historic trends and make them new again, it’s possible for churches to have some elements that fit another decade. We can sing classic hymns and choruses. We can bring back an event or a title. After all it would be hard to justify spending a large portion of ministry funds on just updating.

But if our methods are largely 30 or 40 years old, we’ve missed many of the things God has been doing in our congregation and community. He’s placed you in this decade to do His work. With today’s words and methods, let us declare today is the day of salvation.

For permission to republish this article, contact Marissa Postell Sullivan.