Transforming the Church

Since the birth of the Church, there have been catalysts that have helped transform the Church in every generation. From Paul to Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp, and Perpetua; from Tertullian to Augustine, Jerome to Origen, from Justin Martyr to John Chrysostom, from Athanasius to Ambrose, from Thomas Aquinas to Francis of Assisi to Joan of Arc, from Thomas a Kempis to Catherine of Siena and Teresa of Avila, from John Wycliffe to John Hus to John Calvin and John Knox, from Martin Luther to Ulrich Zwingli, from William Tyndale to John Wesley, from George Whitefield to Jonathan Edwards, from Charles Finney to D.L. Moody, from William & Catherine Booth to Billy Sunday to Billy Graham to Bill Bright, from William Seymour to Martin Luther King, from Aimee Semple McPherson to Jack Hayford, from Oral Roberts to John Wimber, from RW Schambach to Rod Parsley and TD Jakes, from Pensacola to Toronto, from megachurches to microchurches, simple churches, and house churches! The Church, the Body of Christ, is ever-changing, constantly growing, evolving, moving forward, and transforming into the Image of Christ.

God uses men and women as catalysts to spur us forward. Every generation adapts to meet the needs of the culture and society around it.

Today it's our turn! What are we going to do? Are we going to sit idly by waiting and watching to see what happens? Or will we become the catalysts God will use to transform the Church for the next generation? With or without us, transformation is coming.

The principles and foundations of the Church will never change. The mission of the Church will never change. But the methods must change! The language of the Church must change, the structure of the Church must change. It is our job, our responsibility, yes, our duty to become the catalysts of transformation in the Church today. We cannot wait for the next generation to rise up. By then, it may be too late.