Matthew 9:16-17 “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”

This is a justly famous passage, yet at the same time a somewhat enigmatic one. The principle of new with new and old with old seems obvious enough, but the question becomes one of what is new and what is old when it comes to spiritual matters and the Church. I studied a book in seminary titled The Problem of Wineskins about this very issue. At the time it was extremely relevant, because the Charismatic Movement was making big waves in the Church. However, when God’s truth is eternal, when is it new? And in the effort to be “new wineskins,” are we to abandon the institutional Church altogether? The context of Jesus’ teaching was the transition from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant, and institutional religion was indeed transformed. The shift brought about by the Protestant Reformation was lesser, but still major. And yes, the Pentecostal/Charismatic Movement has made some fairly big changes in how the majority of churches “do church.” However, all along the way many people have used this passage to justify throwing out virtually everything. That is happening today in the “Post Church Movement” in the US, where self-confessed Christians are rejecting not only church buildings, but regular meetings and all the rest. Some good points have been made by people in that group, but in general it seems to be a means of evading accountability. The real issue in all of this is remaining flexible and responsive to what God is saying. We are all strongly influenced by our respective cultures, which is why foreign missions is such a challenge. The goal is for every group of believers to acquire kingdom culture, that goes along with our spiritual citizenship (Philippians 3:20), flavored by but not dominated by the cultures of our upbringing and residence.

And I have just delineated one of the biggest challenges of my life and ministry. I should be more aware of the challenges than most, as a “Third Culture Kid,” raised in Japan by American parents, but that certainly doesn’t give me all the answers. The Church in Japan is not sufficiently “Japanese,” but in modern society, the definition of “Japanese” is constantly changing. My goal, my desire, is a church structure that will be fully true to Scripture and the Spirit while pre-senting as few obstacles as possible to Japanese coming into God’s kingdom. I don’t have the full answer to that! As an independent church we have fewer organizational restrictions on us than most, but my roots are firmly in the Southern Baptist missionary tradition, and that has colored things a great deal. I’ve got to listen to the Holy Spirit and listen to the Japanese, letting my past traditions take third place in that hierarchy. That’s not to say my past experience won’t be useful, but it must not push ahead of the first two, and that’s a real challenge.

Father, thank You for bringing this up this morning. I wasn’t thinking about it. Help me hear You and obey You indeed, not getting onto the “autopilot” of habit but letting You have the controls, so that my life and this church may go where You desire, on Your schedule for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!