Yesterday, I’ve bought a new car.
Well, a new used-car that is. I’m not in a position to buy a new car financially. If someone is thinking of becoming a pastor, you can forget about buying a new car. But I bought a good one nevertheless. My old car had so much kilometers on the meter, I had to bring it to the mechanics every two weeks. I drove too much, and it thus required a lot of treatment. I feel the same can be said about leadership in our churches. Sometimes, you will see a board whose members have had so many kilometers that almost every time a topic is discussed, they need mechanic treatment to explain why and how for everything.
Fortunately, this is not the case with our board. But we should keep an eye on developments. For a board to function, it should not loose time. The same goes for an entire church: if it is run by “cars” which have too many kilometers in too many years, they will not be able to complete the mission of the church. These old “cars” will not understand why and how the new ones function. They will also not understand how the present generation is best approached for the Three-Angels Message. It’s not the method that is important, but the message. Sometimes, in order for a church to proclaim the three angels message in the present generation, it will need present time messengers, using present time resources to teach present truth. Or, in other words, they need to be replaced by new cars.
We see it everywhere. At the General Conference Session in San Antonio, the old cars dominate the amount of delegates. This is not to say that this was a bad thing. I’m not saying that. I’m trying to say that sometimes (not always!), to increase the mission of the church, we’ll be more effective if present time generations are in top leadership positions for they don’t slow down the process by asking the questions “why so,” or “why this, that.” For our church, we are blessed with a boad that has a good mix of everything: male, female, young, senior, experienced, less experienced, etc. That does not mean that we shouldn’t keep an eye out for new talent. Today is a Youth Day. Let’s see if we can recogise new talent for the future among the youth members. Perhaps some will have the ability to become a “new car” for future times