Yesterday we talked about our tendency to evaluate new approaches by the “standard” of the status quo. It’s worth continuing that discussion for at least one more day, especially with respect to how we do church.

We’ve come to understand “church” as coming together on Sunday morning in a large group to sing (“worship”), hear a sermon, and share communion (or the Eucharist with the frequency depending on your tradition). Anything different from that is met with “That’s not church!”

A frequently quoted scripture purporting to mandate weekly church attendance is in Hebrews 10:

Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is… (Hebrews 10.25, KJV)

But we get a completely different take if we read that whole verse in context:

Discover creative ways to encourage others and to motivate them toward acts of compassion, doing beautiful works as expressions of love. This is not the time to pull away and neglect meeting together, as some have formed the habit of doing, because we need each other! In fact, we should come together even more frequently, eager to encourage and urge each other onward as we anticipate that day dawning. (Hebrews 10.24, 25, TPT)

We are supposed to come together “even more frequently” to “encourage and urge each other onward” – something we’re not allowed to do in the traditional Sunday morning church format.

Jesus and his ministry were judged and rejected by the establishment because it was different from their status quo. Yet Jesus ushered in a whole new (and way better!) era of how we relate to God:

The old system of living under the law presented us with only a faint shadow, a crude outline of the reality of the wonderful blessings to come. Even with its steady stream of sacrifices offered year after year, there still was nothing that could make our hearts perfect before God. (Hebrews 10.1, TPT)

Back to Seth Godin’s original blog, new is not automatically better. The challenge is to evaluate new versus old fairly.

Every scholar of the Scriptures, who is instructed in the ways of heaven’s kingdom realm, is like a wealthy homeowner with his house filled with treasures both new and old. And he knows how and when to bring them out to show others. (Matthew 13.52, TPT)