Written 18th June 2020 Often we are scared of change. We run away from it, we stay stagnant in our ways. We refuse to move from our traditions, even when they aren’t relevant or working anymore. But what in Gods universe stays the same? We pass down DNA through generations, but who is exactly the same as one parent? We don’t stay the same as time goes by, so why should our faith and the representations of it? If you had a service taken exactly as Charles Wesley would have taken one, would you enjoy that? Would it strengthen your faith? Would it bring you to see God? Whilst for some of you might be something that talks to you, a style that you would be strengthened by, but for most I would presume it would be in actual fact quite boring, not interesting at least, because it’s the style that people responded to generations ago. It is the style built for their minds, their ways of life, their understandings. Why, then, are we so quick to refuse to allow change within our worship today towards the current thoughts of our community. When Jesus preached, he used methods that the religious leaders of the time weren’t, and yet he still showed the ways of god to the people. Jesus told stories, never gave a straightforward answer (dare I say quite like some politicians?), and required people to think about his words and come to their own understanding. To an extent, sometimes, we preach in a different way to how Jesus connected to the people of his time, even when we use his words. He told stories that connected with the people around him - he was in a world of farmers, people who built their own homes, so he taught using stories of people sowing seeds, building houses, looking after animals. We, in turn, need to tell stories which connect with those we are trying to connect to - we tell stories of others of faith, coming to faith, people experiencing troubles of today, people we know, books we have read, television shows and films we have watched. If we tell the same stories that Jesus told, how do we expect to connect to the people around us today? We need to learn from what Jesus did to show the kingdom of God to the people around Him and use the methods, rather than specifically the stories, of Jesus. Should we be ignoring change, and staying true to the worship of our ancestors, staying true to traditions that have stood for years in the way we talk about God, or should we change what we do to suit the audience that we want it to reach today?