Minister’s message: New wine, old skins

In 1967, writes Rev James Gatherer, the research division of the Swiss watchmaking industry came up with a new idea – a battery powered watch. Without wheels or springs, it was regarded as a harmless novelty.

At an international conference the ’quartz watch’ was put on a side display for amusement. A small
Japanese company new to watchmaking called Seiko took interest.

Between 1979 and 1982, 50,000 highly skilled Swiss watchmakers lost their jobs as the industry all but collapsed.

They had made the fatal mistake of not asking the basic question – ‘what is a watch for’? It is, of course, for telling the time and for that it doesn’t need wheels and springs.

Today all the churches in all their expressions need to ask the same question – ‘what is the church for?’ But above all they need to remember the words spoken by the Lord Jesus when he said: ‘No one pours new wine into old wineskins.’

• Photo by Danil Shostak on Unsplash