By Danny Evans

I don’t love change. You may have a different impression of me, but let me state my case. I was a pastor at the same church for 9 years before God called me here. I am a Buc’s fan whether they just won the Super Bowl or went 0-16, and I still have a few shirts I wore in college (although they are much tighter now).

There are movies I remember watching as a child that are the greatest movies ever made … or so I thought until I had some youth over to watch The Princess Bride. To my surprise, they hated it. One students even said, “I guess you kind of had to grow up with it” then proceeded to tell me why Lord of the Rings was way better. This generation needs some education, right?

It got even worse a few years ago when I went to a youth pastors’ conference and looked around at all the up-and-coming youth pastors wearing skin- ny jeans and purple shirts. It looked like they were mass produced at a factory. It was crazy. I made a decision that day to never let my daughter date a guy that wears tighter jeans than her. I wasn’t the only one concerned either. The church as a whole was getting worried. They dubbed this a “cultural war.”

Then God changed my heart.

It was on a mission trip to Costa Rica, with a woman who did not approve of us using drums in our church, that I began to see things more clearly. We entered into worship with some of the people there, and they began to play their bongo drums. I looked over and saw this woman worshiping with all her heart, fully engaged with God. Later she talked about how great it was to learn about their culture and reach them where they were for Christ. It sounded a lot like 1 Corinthians 9 where Paul talks about being all things to all people so that he might reach some. My question was, “Why was that heart not shown at our own church?” There were a couple answers I came up with.

First is this: We were on a mission trip. We came to serve these people in any way we could. In our church, we feel that we are the ones who should be served. Although we will never admit this, we confirm it with our actions and attitudes. This goes directly against Romans 12. We are a part of the body of Christ to serve, not to be served. To give not to get.

Second, we feel that because this is a Christian nation and the gospel is at our door step, we do not have to yield our preferences to reach people. Besides, we are in a cultural war, and we cannot give ground to the enemy.

The best response I heard to this was from Scott Solberg on the adult retreat. He said, “The war is over. We lost—get over it and reach them for Christ.”

It’s over and we are no longer a Christian nation. All you have to do is turn on the TV to realize that. What this means is we are now a mission field, the same way Costa Rica is a mission field. Full of people from a different culture than us who need to be reached for Christ where they are.

So I am willing to change. Not because I love it, but because I love them. If I could give up every single one of my preferences for even one person of this generation to come to Christ, I would.

I will, however, change carefully; change wisely, with thoughtfulness and deliberation. And I will never change the message, only the method. The gospel of Christ transcends cultures, and I will share it with the world, regardless of whom it offends, but I will also be aware of our culture, sen- sitive to its needs, and gracious in how I relate with others.