Is God Calling Us to Change?
It has been said that the only one who likes change is a baby with a wet diaper, and while that may be a bit of an overstatement, it does accurately reflect the truth that most people are resistant to change. Change is usually uncomfortable because it creates uncertainty within us and often violates our preferences, traditions and general sense about what is proper, especially within the church. Change requires more of us in that we need to engage our minds and reflect deeply upon a new way of thinking or a new way of accomplishing our goals and objectives without sacrificing Biblical teaching or principles. Change will often require physical and emotional energy that will tax our ability to cope with everyday life. Yet, we must also recognize that change in itself is not necessarily evil, often is just another way of thinking about life, faith and meeting the needs of people. Change is one of life’s consistent features and to deny this reality keeps us from recognizing what God is seeking to do in the world today.
Pastor Leith Anderson, of Wooddale Church in Eden Prairie, MN, wrote the following in the Foreward to Aubrey Malphurs book, Pouring New Wine into Old Wineskins: How to Change a Church without Destroying It.
We may want to withdraw to some safe haven where change will never invade and yesterday will live forever. Can the church be our safe haven from change? Hardly! The church is no more exempt from change than business, school, family or government. Like it or not, the church is in the world, and the world is changing. Our choices are few. We can pretend the changes are not happening. We can build walls to keep changes away. Or we can open all the doors and windows and be changed by the changes. None of these is wise or practical. The best choice is to deal with change from a biblical base, incorporating the best and excluding the worst….Neither the issues nor the changes are limited to individual leaders or isolated churches . The challenges facing us are everywhere. The success and survival of the church is at stake. It is not a matter of a single sick church or a misfit pastor. Changes are necessary in the entire system.
The changes that have come to our world over the last 20 years, and therefore the church, are many. In the lines that follow I would like to mention a few of those changes that I believe have had some of the greatest impact on the local church. First, we are a much more mobile society, willing, even expecting, to drive greater distances to find a job, home, church or recreational experience that meets our felt needs. Second, it is now the norm, rather than the exception, that both husband and wife work, putting a greater premium on time and limiting the availability for meetings, events and social gatherings that don’t meet a specific goal or purpose. Third, children are involved in a larger number of organized school and community based programs that demand an ever increasing amount of their, and their parents, free time.
Fourth, the explosion of faith-based media makes it possible to hear nationally recognized teachers and preachers virtually everyday of the week and has raised the standard for the worship service of every local congregation. Fifth, in spite of the Bible being the best selling book year after year, the majority of Americans, including regular church attendees, are Biblically illiterate. Finally, there is a growing segment of our population for whom there are no absolutes, truth is defined by their current situation and they have little need for a Savior because they do not believe they have anything to be saved from. Our world has changed indeed!
My point here is not to try and detail a congregational strategy for change for we will soon be in a strategic planning process that will help us with that process. Rather I hope to raise people’s awareness of the issue and have us begin asking, what adjustments do we need to make in our church in order that we might continue to reach people with the Gospel message of Jesus Christ? It is not an easy question to answer and a season of prayerful reflection is required if we are going to keep in step with what God is doing in the world today. May God grant us the wisdom and the courage to make the changes required to remain an effective witness for the kingdom of God and personal faith in Jesus Christ.
Author
Pastor Bruce is the Executive Director of God's Living Stones. He lives in Omaha, NE, with his wife Barb. They have two adult children.
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