Embracing change

This past Christmas our daughter gave my wife and I each a Nook Color reader.  Neither of us were sure this would be a gift we would use.  Both of us read quite a bit, but we weren't sure that we would enjoy reading a book on an electronic gadget.  I like holding a book, highlighting important sections, and writing in the margins to interact with the material.  But, we were not about to disappoint our daughter so we registered our Nooks and downloaded a book to read.  Since Christmas I have read three books on the Nook and two "real" books.  This morning I was looking for a new book to read and realized that I had rejected two or three because they were not available on Nook!  Earlier this week my wife told me she really enjoys her Nook and has downloaded two books that won't even be available on the device for another month or two.   The other evening I realized that each of us were sitting in the living room reading our Nooks and listening to Pandora, an online radio station that personalizes the music they plan based on the preferences you give them.  (We were listening to different styles of music.)  I started laughing and told my wife that we had come a long way for a couple in their 60s!

This post isn't a plug for Nook versus Kindle.  Both are fine readers as I'm sure some of their competitors are.  This is about being willing to try new things.  Had someone other than a family member given us the Nooks I'm not sure we might not have returned them for the money.  But, we chose to try them out, primarily to honor the gift our daughter gave us, and we've found out that we really enjoy them.  Plus, we learned about Pandora and have the added benefit of listening to that station as well.

How many times have we be challenged to consider doing something different only to reject it without even giving it a try or even much thought?  How many times have our congregations done the same thing when some new ministry has been proposed?  Even worse, how many blessings have we missed for those rejections?

The fact is, change is going to to happen whether we embrace it or not.  Now, we can choose to reject change, but that doesn't mean that the change won't happen.  It will just happen somewhere else, and we'll find ourselves being left behind in a world that no longer exists. I'm afraid that describes too many of our churches, and, quite honestly, it describes too many of our pastors.  God brings us opportunities for new ministries and new ways of doing things, and because of fear or tradition we refuse to take advantage of the new opportunities.  We sing the favorite hymn of many churches, "I Shall Not Be Moved."  Our rejection of these opportunities doesn't make them go away.  God simply raises up another church, often down the road from ours, who will embrace those opportunities.  We are left behind wondering why we can't grow and have the ministries that these new churches enjoy.

I am not advocating change for the sake of change.  That's stupid.  What I am calling for is that we become more aware of new ministry opportunities around us and a willingness to respond to those opportunities.  It's all right to stick your toe in the water before jumping in.  You may decide that you will try some new thing for six months or one year before fully committing to it.  There is often great wisdom in such a decision, especially if the change you are making is a major one.  This allows people time to adjust to the change; it allows the church to evaluate how well the change is working; and it often reduces the initial reaction that often comes when new things are proposed. 

There are now three churches in my Area that wanted to make major changes in the way they were structured and governed.  What each of them did was invite their congregations to agree to suspend their church constitution for two or three years and operate under a new proposed constitution.  At the end of the agreed time the church would evaluate how well the new structure was working and could decide then whether or not to make the change permanent.  The first church stayed with the new structure.  The second church still has about a year to go in their trial period.  The third church just began their trial, and I now have a fourth church that is voting on doing something similar next month.  This is proving to be an effective way to introduce major change into a church.

What needs to change in your church that would allow it to more effectively minister to your community?  How do you feel personally about those changes?  How would your congregation respond if you took those changes to them for consideration?  If rejection is the first word that comes to your mind, why?  Is it due to fear?  Tradition? Control issues?  Genuine lack of resources?  Identify the cause of the possible rejection and ask yourself how that cause could be addressed.  Then ask yourself what the potential gains would be if you embraced the change.  If the gains are substantial then I suggest it is worth the risk and the time spent in overcoming the challenges.