This is Part 7 in this series on Millennial leaders. The reader is encouraged to read the introductory blog before reading what follows below.

6.  David’s methods are not those of his elders – I Samuel 17.38-40

Goliath.  Giant. Armor. Sword Spear.  Saul.  Not a giant, but big.  Armor. Sword. Spear.  David.  Young man.  “Armor? Sword? Spear?  No, thank you.  I’ll take a sling and five smooth stones,” he says.

I served as a missionary for many years. As a missionary, I participated in the ministry and fellowship of the pastors of that nation, one part being their monthly business meeting. The meeting opened with prayer and worship, followed by a sermon, then business.

I remember one meeting in particular. The worship concluded, one of the pastors brought the sermon of the day. His subject was a simple one: the methods of God don’t change.

He told of hearing the “new truth” that while the principles of God don’t change, the methods do, that methods need to be adapted to the culture, the times, the audience, etc. He said, in no uncertain             terms, that this was heresy, that the Word of God is clear in its teaching that the principles of God never change, and this is expressed in the unchanging methods of God for the church.

He cited as an example an annual weeklong evangelistic event that his church hosted. The church printed flyers and distributed them personally and on public notice boards throughout the city. He told us that in recent years, visitors to their evangelistic meetings were rare. In fact, the previous year, there had been only one visitor to their weeklong event. He further said that attendance at these meetings was waning, with fewer and fewer of his own church members coming. The meetings were, he confessed, largely ineffective in their stated purpose.

But, he continued, he knew that this was the method of God and the church was to continue. To do otherwise would be sin. Sin.

Boy, was I a sinner! I had learned and employed many new methods in ministry over the years.

Of course, my pastor friend had no problem with the fact that the church he pastored, like all churches, employed methods of which the New Testament church never heard. Nor even had the people who called his church their spiritual home fifty years before.

Sacred cows.

Have you ever heard one speak? I’m sure you have. They are easily identified by their distinctive sound: “MMMMMMethods! We’ve never done it like this before.”

Can’t you hear the generals and captains of Israel as they witnessed David refusing the armor of Saul to instead take up a sling and five smooth stones: “We’ve never done it like this before!”

No, and what they had done before was not working now. It was not only useless, it was counterproductive: it did not even sustain the status quo, it invited defeat. Goliath was terrorizing Israel and the methods of yesterday did not apply here.

Young leaders are not only not adverse to new methods (forgive my double negative), but they aggressively look for them. Yes, this can be an issue, but not a problem given the proper help (we’ll talk about that tomorrow). But young leaders are not invested in yesterday or what worked yesterday. Neither are our sacred cows their sacred cows. Their investment is in today and what will see the vision realized and the mission moved forward.

They travel light.

I have missionary friends who live by the one-year rule: if you haven’t used it in a year, get rid of it because it’s only taking up space, it’s only getting in the way of making a house a home. They say, “If we’re not using it, we’re storing it and that makes our home a warehouse. Vision distorted, mission missed, the past is ruling our present. Clear the way for what we need to live now.”

My friends are simply echoing what young leaders are saying about methods: “If it’s not moving the mission forward, it’s in the way and needs to be cleared out of the way so that mission can move forward and the vision realized. If it’s not ministering glory to God, strength to the body of Christ and  discipleship to people here and around the world, it’s not for us, let it go; it’s time to find those ministry vehicles – those methods – that will see these three goals realized.

How many sacred cow methods are eating up resources in your church’s pastures and barns? How many once effective methods have become beasts of burden – not beasts that bear burdens for you, but beasts that are a burden for you to bear?

Don’t know where to start in culling the herd?

Call a young leader.

Let him or her look through your barns and fields.

Call a young leader. Let them help you take off old Saul’s armor and then identify the slingshot weapons and five-smooth-stone methods you need.

It’s time to put David in the game.