What Has Changed?
- Larry Kutzler
- Jul 16
- 2 min read
One of the concepts I have picked up on over the years, is that God’s power and nature never changes. So, what changes is us. In some circles it is called ‘Mission Shift’ which is defined as moving away from what we believe or practice. Mission Shift is seen when we have a change in leadership in a Church or ministry, and sometimes it is a drastic shift away from what was normal in the ministry. Now, sometimes a change is needed, but only in procedure, not content. If the shift is around policy that is one thing, but when it shifts the content of the Word of God away from its preeminence in the ministry that is something completely different.
I believe we have seen this shift in the Evangelical Church over the years. The mainline Churches saw this shift 40 years ago, but we are now seeing it in the Evangelical community. We are more about ourselves and what our ministries do, than who Jesus is and what He can do. In the past few years, this Mission Shift has caught up with some of the more prominent ministers, and we have learned they were living some dark lives with secrets only known to God and themselves. There was no accountability in the ministry because no one wanted to challenge the cash cow of the leader.
Much of what we are seeing in the Church is the image of the merchants in the Temple. They were selling their animals for sacrifice and charging high prices for the product. That is why Jesus said, “You have changed the House of God into a Den of Thieves,” and He overturned the tables. Personally, I believe the overturning of the tables is what is happening today. God is saying, “Get back to what you did at first, put Me first and you will continue to represent My name. If you don’t, I will remove your ability to speak on My behalf.” (Revelation 2 The Church of Ephesus)
So, what has changed is not God, but us. In our weekly podcast, The CitySites Podcast that comes out every Friday, we are producing a series called ‘The Fallen.’ Several colleagues and I talk about the conditions leading up to this shift in our mission, and what happens when there is no accountability with some successful ministries. We talk also about the victims and how too often they are the forgotten entity in moral failure brought on by clergy. This is a serious issue and should be addressed in all Churches. No one is exempt from the kind of moral failure that we are seeing today. Please tune in to the series this week, and go back and listen to the first few we produced, they are archived on the site, citysitesurbanmedia.com
Challenging the Culture with Truth … Larry Kutzler