Computers and change

The last few days have been quite interesting.  I bought a new computer.  My desktop was several years old.  The screen froze once in a while, and the computer had really slowed down.  Some of the USB ports no longer worked.  For awhile we were wondering if the house was haunted as we occasionally heard voices until one day my wife was walking past my study as a video on my home page suddenly came on by itself.  It was definitely time for a new computer.  Besides, I had never really liked this one anyway.  I've owned dozens of computers over the years, and I've never been as disappointed in any of them as I was this one.  However, having said all that, I hated getting a new computer.

For one thing it would come with Windows 8.  I recently bought a new laptop for work with Windows 8, and I still wonder why Microsoft stock sells as high as it does.  After living through Vista and Windows 7 I was certain my next computer would be a Mac, but since I needed a PC for my work laptop I didn't want to have to learn two operating systems, so I got a PC with Windows 8 for my desktop.  The second reason I didn't want a new computer was that would mean I would have to transfer all my files and download the various programs I use plus I would have to spend more money for the newest version of Office.  So now, I've got two computers set up in my study while I'm spending hours getting the new one set up.  Not my idea of a fun way to spend one's time!

As I've been working on getting the new computer set up I couldn't help but think about how technology has changed since I began my ministry in 1981.  Back then I had an old Underwood typewriter that must have weighed fifty pounds.  It got replaced with a word processor that only showed two lines when I typed on it.  I went through a lot of White-Out in those days!  My first computer class was DOS, and some of you won't even know what that is.  You're lucky.  I think my first computer used Windows 3.1.  That and XP were my favorites and, in my opinion, the only two really good programs Microsoft has developed.  I suffered through Me, Vista,  and 7.  I hope once I get more comfortable with 8 that I'll learn to like it, but I do miss XP.

Technology has changed a lot since I began my ministry, and I've not always embraced the changes.  That might surprise some of my readers because I'm one who often writes on change, but the bottom line is most of us really don't like change a lot.  As someone once wrote, "The only people who like change are babies with wet diapers."  Change makes us uncomfortable.  It takes us out of our routines, our comfort zones.  It forces us to learn new things and to take risks.  Change means that we move from being self-reliant to once again becoming novices.

However, one of the things I've learned as a church leader is that I'm not called to be comfortable, and I'm not called to live in a comfort zone.  I'm certainly not called to be self-reliant.  I am to be reliant on Jesus Christ, and that does entail some risk.  I don't have to embrace change or even like it; I just have to be willing to change when circumstances call for it.  And right now, the circumstances the church faces in this world not only calls for the church to change, they demand that the church changes.

You've probably heard the expression, "Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die."  Everybody wants things to get better in the church, but nobody wants to make the changes that are needed for that to happen.  Denominational leaders sit around wringing their hands as they watch their churches drift further away from them, but there's little real interest in changing anything to reverse that.  They create another task force to discuss their problems for a few more years while they become more and more irrelevant to their churches, and little, if anything comes from those discussions.  Local church leaders do the same thing.  They worry and complain about their churches growing smaller and smaller but are unwilling to make the significant changes it might take to turn that around.

The reality is this: If your church could be healthy and grow by doing what you're already doing, it would already be doing so.  If it's not healthy and growing, then you have to do something different, and that means change.  If you're not willing to change, then stop pretending you want your church to be healthy and growing because you don't.  At least you don't want it bad enough to be willing to change what no longer works.  Yes, changing things in the church is risky, it's messy, it's often painful, it's time-consuming, and it will be very uncomfortable.  But, it's better than doing nothing and dying.

I've still got more work to do on getting my new computer set up the way I want it, but I can already tell it works a lot faster than my old computer which will allow me to be much more productive.  It also has more features which will allow me to do things I've not been able to do before.  In a short period of time the pain of change will be over, and I'll be able to enjoy the benefits the change will bring me.  The same will be true of your church.