Walking through my neighborhood a while back, I passed a church with a sign on the front lawn which read, “Under New Management.” I had to smile. Actually, I chuckled. Okay, laughed.
I had seen those words a thousand times before, of course, but always in a store front, or on a business brochure or advertising flyer. They were alerting consumers to new and exciting changes that were to be made because the company had changed ownership or staff. New products, services, and probably a sale or two were in the offing, so pay attention!
But what does it mean for a church to be under new management? Have the elders been replaced with new ones? Is there a new set of deacons, pastor, Sunday School teachers, and maybe a new church secretary? Perhaps there was a refi and the building is in the hands of a different bank?
I never called the church to see what the sign meant. But it does raise the question of our ownership, doesn’t it? From the time of our birth, we spend a lot of time learning to govern ourselves, choosing our own paths, living life as we want.
But when we begin to follow Jesus, all of that changes, or at least is given a new perspective. Jesus died paying a price for us, redeeming us, and rescuing us for His own. This has many implications, of course, for our outward behavior. But all of that begins with an internal realization that we are, in fact, body, soul, mind, and spirit, Under New Management.
“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you,
whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?
For you have been bought with a price:
therefore glorify God in your body.”
1 Corinthians 6:19, 20