respect the past

last saturday i went to a syracuse football game. for those of you that do not know about su football this season let me bring you up to date. they are 1-7 with a new coach; george robinson. . this year the 2 quarterbacks alternate drives.

i received these tickets from one of the many people in our church that have season tickets. i guess he didnt want to see another loss. on the way to the game i looked at the tickets and saw in big print "respect the past." i started laughing and andy ( friend who went with me) asked me why. i told him what the tickets had on them. there really isnt much to respect about their present team.

now i do not now a lot about su football. i have only live here for three months. i did find out that jim brown used to play for su and donovan mcnabb played qb for them not to long ago. also back in 1959 they won the national championship. i can definately respect those three things. i wonder though how much "respecting the past" will get them into a future national championship in football.

switching respect over to the church. the universal church has has alot to respect with many people like martin luther, john wesley, john calvin, mother theresa. they have done many things for the church today. but i wonder how far we as the church of today can get just "respecting the past."

the church i used to work at has a storied past. they did great things. a former pastor was a gs in the wesleyan church. they had done many great things in the community. but for the past few years they have disconnected with that community and the former pastor is now dead. but yet the church still lives in the glory days of the past. i wonder where we draw the line of respecting the past but being active in the present to prepare for the future. how much of what we do is just to get by?

at the same time i think it is very important to respect the past. a lot of people have gone before us to get us where we are today. many countries before us were very evangelical at one time but have become very secularized. i heard a stat that only 1% of people in england go to church and the same stat can be said for a majority of european countries. the u.s. is headed in the same direction. how can we respect the past enough to change the decline and have a positive future. how can the local church and the universal church do this as a whole united.