Maybe We Need Some Old Time Religion

I’m writing this article to a generation that might never have heard the old song, Old Time Religion (so I included a clip from an old movie for you). I grew up in an old-fashioned church. We had an old building, built in 1833, and an old cemetery with civil war era headstones. We sang old songs on old instruments and most of the old people that were my heroes when I was younger have gone on home to heaven.

You may be preparing yourself for one of those “we need things to be like they were in the old days” articles, but that’s not what is on my mind. In fact, I think we need churches to ignore the opinions and criticisms of their surrounding Christian subculture and do whatever it takes to communicate the gospel in the context of the present generation. This will, in most cases, require louder music, fewer pipe organs, and a big surge forward in the area of living with integrity and character.

In that song, however, is a lyric that keeps ringing through my mind today… “makes me love everybody.” My wife read a quote to me this morning from Greg Surratt (the book is coming soon) that caused us both to pause and think. He said that “spiritual growth shouldn’t be measured by how much we know, but by who we love.” And if we’re really growing, we’ll love more people. To read more, click here.