{"id":611,"date":"2013-02-20T08:22:40","date_gmt":"2013-02-20T15:22:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nickduffel.com\/?p=611"},"modified":"2013-02-20T08:22:40","modified_gmt":"2013-02-20T15:22:40","slug":"is-newer-always-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/?p=611","title":{"rendered":"Is newer always better?"},"content":{"rendered":"<body><p><\/p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nickduffel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/new.png\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-612\" alt=\"NEW\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nickduffel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/new.png?resize=300%2C300\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nickduffel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/new.png?w=300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nickduffel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/new.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>\n<p>Is newer always better?\u00a0 Many churches seem to be perpetually clamoring for innovation, perhaps as reaction to those churches that have stayed the same for so long and lost their voice.<\/p>\n<p>What could be more important than staying fresh?\u00a0 People have short attention spans.\u00a0 We have to keep them engaged.\u00a0 Keep them guessing.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m all for following the Holy Spirit into new territory if that\u2019s where He leads.\u00a0 And what does God want?\u00a0 Where is he leading?\u00a0 Many would say, \u201cRevival!\u201d\u00a0 The interesting thing about revival in the Church is it has nothing to do with doing new things, but rather returning to the old things that work; shedding those things that don\u2019t work along the way.<\/p>\n<p>And many (if not all) of those non-working things we would shed were once innovative ideas. \u00a0They were implemented in a good-natured attempt to jumpstart something that wasn\u2019t happening.\u00a0 Namely, numerical growth.\u00a0 But God is interested in another kind of growth that isn\u2019t happening.\u00a0 Namely, discipleship.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve forgotten that there is something more preeminent than innovation: listening.\u00a0 Listening to God for the next step, and the next, and the next.\u00a0 And teaching others to do the same.\u00a0 A convert who can\u2019t listen to God can\u2019t follow God.<\/p>\n<p>All this listening can and often will lead us to innovation, because Yahweh is a creative God.\u00a0 But most often it will lead us back to the old ways that work.\u00a0 The ways that we have forgotten and tried to replace with our inferior human inventions.<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Is newer always better?\u00a0 Many churches seem to be perpetually clamoring for innovation, perhaps as reaction to those churches that have stayed the same for so long and lost their voice. What could be more important than staying fresh?\u00a0 People have short attention spans.\u00a0 We have to keep them engaged.\u00a0 Keep them guessing. I\u2019m all&hellip;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/?p=611\" rel=\"bookmark\">Read More &raquo;<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Is newer always better?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7,8,13],"tags":[37,56,84,85,94,111,113,151,184,193],"class_list":["post-611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-leadership-2","category-leadership-wednesday","category-thoughts","tag-church","tag-discipleship","tag-god","tag-gospel","tag-holy-spirit","tag-jesus","tag-leaders","tag-reflection","tag-success","tag-thoughts-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7EHHr-9R","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}