Of Longevity

Originally, I had another topic queued up for me to talk about. After allowing the subject to soak for about a week, I decided to postpone it for a bit; I'll explain why when I actually get to writing on it.

The whole thing of longevity is so strange to me. Is it good? Is it bad? How do things last? Why do they last, or why don't they last? Longevity has been something I've thought many years about. The whole idea and issue behind it came to me when I was in high school. At youth group one night, one of the leaders told us about the average lifespan of pastors in Chinese churches nowadays. I don't know why, but hearing the stats shocked me and the feeling of it has stayed with me ever since. I'll chalk this one up to God, preparing me for when I entered ministry.

Wherever we stand on this topic of longevity, I think one thing is pretty clear: it's pretty hard to come by now. I'm not sure I remember the last time I saw or heard any sort of advertisement emphasizing the idea of preservation and commitment. Everything is about getting it new, trying something different, or just turning the page completely. Things in life seem to get dull so quickly because of the rapid turnover rate of just about everything. So whenever we preserve or keep something for a span of time, it just feels odd. Many people can look at things from merely 4 or 5 years ago and call them classics already. I'd say this is especially true in the music industry. There's this one radio ad I hear all the time that more or less says, "We play everything, from the classics *insert Firework by Katy Perry clip* to the newest hits *insert Sorry by Justin Bieber clip.*"

Bringing this topic into the church, or the church into this topic, things start to get even more strange. Here is the conflict that I can't seem to figure out: we crave longevity, and yet it seems to be longevity that often kills the church.

I realize that such a statement isn't universally applicable, but it appears to be a rather prominent thing that is acting as a roadblock for so many church families/communities. In several of the churches I've attended and served at over the last several years, there is one thing that is rather common with the trend of areas that need to be addressed. I'll draw up a scenario. The youth pastor who just started at the church 6 months ago has just quit or was let go. People raise their pitchforks and take stabs at anything and everything, saying that the decision was arrived at too quickly. And on the other hand, the approach to the worship service has been the same for over 20 years, and people are bored of it. There's no new-ness, nothing "fresh" about the service, and has become predictable and boring. Why can't we try new things to liven up the atmosphere? We'll never grow if we remain stuck in the past!

Such cases are happening everywhere. It saddens me that the worshiping of Jesus as our saviour ever gets old - or anything that's related to it, in that matter. When we talk about practicality, is there ever a "just right"? Most of the decisions we make seem to either be premature or overdue. We either act too quickly, or wait long enough to see everything collapse. The only thing I can say to these results and decisions is that when we seem to be too hasty in our choices, we only ever say that we should've given it more time. For the latter, the issue to me isn't when we find that by the time we realize it's too late, we see ourselves scrambling and trying to catch as many pieces as we can while everything falls apart. The real problem is when we try to take back everything we've lost. We end up spending so much time chasing things that will likely never come back that we neglect what we do have and what's coming our way. This is precisely why I think nostalgia can trap us so easily.

At this point, you might be thinking that I lean towards letting go of things sooner rather than later. This isn't necessarily the case because we can also have the tendency to bail out at the first sign of trouble. If one person makes one mistake, all of a sudden he/she is exiled, or something like that.

So, as Newbern is a few weeks from turning 40, these are the questions I'm asking in regards to longevity. It's really important for me to address this because it's a hurdle that will either propel us forward or hinder us. This started when I began wondering how long I'd be here. I'm confident that I will be here as long as I'm needed, but the question is always "how long?" Will I leave before I even make an impact? Or will I overstay my welcome? From determining this, it stems pretty much every action I take and decision I make.

With that being said, I know my mission and purpose is to not focus on how long I'm going to be the English pastor here, but that while I am here, how am I going to prepare for the day that I do leave? I think this mindset has great bearing for an overall approach to life because we all know we're going to be gone one day. For some people, we think they're gone too soon; for others, they can't seem to be gone sooner. We'll never know when that day comes, but in the time being, what are we going to do in preparation for when it does happen?

The answer is quite simple, really. "Let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." (Luke 9:23b) This is how I'm approaching the whole thing of longevity. If we stop living in such a way, then every decision will either be too soon or too late; this is because we don't have peace with it. But with Christ and in him, I know that when the time comes, I want to have the ability to surrender my judgment and trust that his timing is right.