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Dinosaurs and Birds

65 million years ago the dinosaurs faced a radical change when an asteroid crashed into the Earth. We have been told that this cataclysmic event wiped the dinosaurs out—that they all went extinct. We know that there are no dinosaurs today, so that narrative seems to be true.


Most dinosaurs were very large, and they required a lot of resources to survive. When the asteroid hit the earth, the large, hungry dinosaurs that survived the initial impact starved because the resources to keep them alive were not available. But smaller dinosaurs were able to scrounge enough food to survive, and many did survive. In fact, the dinosaurs are with us to this day as scientists tell us that birds evolved from these small dinosaurs, and the evidence for this is the amazing similarity between bird skeletons and dinosaur fossils.


The cataclysm of the asteroid impact did wipe out many of the dinosaurs, but those that could adapt are still going strong. I’m sure that the survivors struggled greatly for eons, but their ability to change and adapt allowed them to survive and become teeming flocks.


Our struggles are not quite as dire as an asteroid’s impact, but they are real, nonetheless. Over recent years, our culture has changed dramatically. The church’s role in society has diminished substantially. Many churches have already succumbed to this cultural asteroid impact and are already extinct. Attendance has been steadily declining at First Church since 2015 and at Woodmar since 2008. Covid did not help, but the data shows that the impact of the pandemic is not the key factor contributing to the declining attendance of mainline denominations that many may assume. No, our asteroid is a changing culture. We are as powerless to escape from the changes around us as the dinosaurs were to avoid the asteroid that killed most of them. But we are not powerless over our ability to adapt to a new reality. We are starving from the lack of resources needed to sustain our churches as they were 50—or even 20—years ago. The world is not going to revert to the “good old days” as we recall them, and unless we adapt, we too will find ourselves extinct.


Birds and dinosaurs seem vastly different, and one definitely does not look like the other. But one derived from the other. What we will become is hard to say, but if we are willing to adapt, then we too may learn to soar like birds. Trust God and embrace the change. It will be hard, and there will be a sense of grief and loss. We can do more than endure: we can live, grow, and prosper. The changes to come may seem as unrecognizable on the outside as robins appear to be unrelated to velociraptors, but the bones on the inside are the same.


Jesus is our hope, Jesus is our life--and if we let Jesus and his mission be the bones within, I am certain that we can adapt into what our environment requires and not only survive but thrive.


Blessings,

Jim

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