The winter is very much with us as February comes in. After the wettest December for a lifetime, and seeing fellow countrymen north and south face floods which had driven them out of their homes and businesses, we seem to have entered a new era. I am not sure whether our land is going to change wholesale as a result of the climate changes, but certain localities have changed and probably will change more in the future.
When the "big freeze" happened in the early sixties, I am sure there were those who predicted massive changes in temperature in the following years, But no, that was a one-off event. The weather changes we have seen in the last decade or more have been more consistent and prolonged and profound than those one off events which spring to mind!
The growth of the Sahara Desert, the changing size of the polar icepacks, the shrinking of certain natural habitats: each of these is one part of this worldwide transformation. It doesn't all happen at once, and our current experience - of more violent storms and wetter seasons - is evidence of the local appearance of a world wide phenomenon.
Such local climate changes happen in the life of the worldwide church as well. What is happening now?
A recent article I read suggested five changes we will begin to see as normal in the local church in the current year(s).
Have a look at these yourself.
We cannot seriously have the notion that ... the way we did things
These are part of a climate that has largely changed and we need to have a fresh approach which is relevant to the climate today. Think about it. The message that "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever" (Hebrews 13:8) means he is both timeless and current: not that he is the Jesus in the way you first encountered at whatever decade you met him.
Stephen Lowry