Always changing yet always the same

I've been thinking a lot lately about the Church...and how it must change in order to meet different needs in different times in different cultures. The irony is that we must change our presentation in order to be effective in communicating the timeless message of an unchanging God. I will continue to wrestle through this, but I'd love your thoughts. I finally picked up Rob Bell's book "Velvet Elvis" and it's encouraging me a lot on this idea. "Times change. God doesn't, but times do. We learn and grow, and the world around us shifts, and the Christian faith is alive only when it is listening, morphing, innovating, letting go of whatever has gotten in the way of Jesus and embracing whatever will help us be more and more the people God wants us to be." Page 11 Change is scary sometimes, but it happens gradually when we are being attentive to the people around us. There is only one thing more scary to me than the Church changing; empty church buildings that once were alive and kicking with the gospel message. After my ninth grade year I took a mission trip into inner city Philly. I saw drug deals, heard drive-by shootings, and got my butt kicked on the basketball court, but nothing shocked me more than the amount of empty churches there. Beatiful, old, striking buildings boarded up because no one could fill them on a Sunday morning. Each one of those churches failed to take a hint from culture around them and adapt to the times. Slowly those churches (bodies of believers) died off and only wood, stone, and stained glass remain. I will continue to wrestle through this (probably for my whole life), but I'd love your thoughts.