Guess I’m just Old Skūl

Pastor Harold Warner

This is not about credit, okay?

These words have always stuck with me: There is no amount of good a person can do if he doesn’t care who gets the credit.

However, I was informed by our Bullseye editor that the inspiration for this issue’s theme came in part after my recent sermon titled Old Skūl Marriage.

That being the case, what was the message all about, and why is it important for our lives today?

Oh, and by the way – just so you don’t think I am spelling-challenged – I do know you don’t spell school, skūl.  That’s Bill Cox’s slang for old school (taken from his email address).

So, now that we have that settled, let’s move on to other things.

First of all, what do we mean by Old School?

It is a slang term referring to an older school of thinking and acting within the context of newer, modern times.  It’s not the sentimentally-charged nostalgia, and it doesn’t carry the negative connotations of obsolete. 

It is used to refer to a time of perceived higher standards or level of craft.

Old school is the equivalent of “they just don’t make ’em like this anymore.”

Our calling is to teach and live old school principles in a new school world: God’s unchanging truth set firmly in the reality of our modern era.

This gets to the heart of how I view the church, and what I think is our greatest challenge.

Our aim is not just to have religious services, but to contend for and create a new culture that reflects God’s plan and purpose in every area of life.

That means for us as believers and as the church, our guiding light is not pop culture but the will of God.

In this respect, I believe that God is definitely old skūl.

Let me mention a few areas where this is crucial and can make a huge difference.

Old School Marriage. Today there are real forces seeking to marginalize marriage and come up with an acceptable alternative to God’s plan.

When Jesus was challenged about marriage and divorce, He went old school on them! In Matthew 19:4-6 He told them, "Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning 'made them male and female,'  and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate." 

What Jesus pointed them to about marriage was first, a Sovereign, Creator God who is the Architect of marriage.

This makes marriage a divine institution and not just a human social experiment.

Second, He spelled out the divine intent behind marriage – “for this reason” – a one-flesh relationship that would become a priority and would answer man’s deepest needs and glorify God’s purpose.

Jesus said if you’re going to make sense about marriage and find your way amidst the myriad of voices today, you must start at the beginning. That’s old school.

Old School Morals. When trying to navigate the morass of moral temptations and pitfalls Paul had no problem going old school by saying that our standard was the will of God.

 “It is God's will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality;  that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God” (1Thess.4:3-5).

Sexual purity is always challenged as being archaic, puritanical, old-fashioned – and the popular one today, “unrealistic.”

No, what it is in actuality is old school - God’s better and more satisfying way to live in a very confused and depraved world.

Old School Ministry. All kinds of “new and improved” versions and methods of how to do church appear every day. We now have the Emerging Church, the Organic Church, the Purpose-driven Church, the Cell Church, the Ethnic Church; and the list continues to grow.

Old school ministry means that we take our cue from the Lord Jesus and the marching orders that He left us with In Matthew 28:19-20:

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen.”

To my knowledge this commandment has never been rescinded.

Old school means that we as individual believers and as the church maintain a great commitment to the Great Commission!

We could go on and on, but I think you catch what I’m getting at.

To take an old school approach will always be distorted as being out of touch in our modern age.

Or, since I am 59 years old, they will say “you’re still stuck in that baby boomer generation of long ago.”

So, let me set the record straight. I have no problem with – in fact I utilize and enjoy! – many of our modern conveniences and advances.

But some things never change; and you and I had better be old school when it comes to these!

Got it? Great!