Restoring Kingdom Builders

How well do you adjust to change?

If you’re like most people – not too well.

Many years ago, our family lived in a comfortable middle-class neighborhood in Santa Clara, California.  Just down the street from us was a shopping center including a grocery store, a drug store, a Chevron gas station, a store that sold tropical fish, and a baseball card store.  (Yes, I was there all the time.)  Kids walked or rode their bikes there.  Families went there to eat.  And the center wasn’t located on a busy street, but was right in the middle of our residential area.

Our Old Neighborhood in Santa Clara, CA

Like most area residents, our family felt proud that we had our own private place to shop.

But then the owner of the center sold it to a developer, who began to raise lease rates so high that business owners began departing one by one.

After everyone eventually left, bulldozers came and destroyed our beloved Village Green Shopping Center – and there wasn’t anything any of us could do about it.  The developer constructed three-story townhomes on that property, and they remain there to this day.

I didn’t like that change one bit, and it happened at a time when I was making changes in the church I served as pastor.  The way I felt about the shopping center enabled me to better understand how some people felt about changes at church.

If you’re in a church that is making changes – and some of them make you feel uneasy – you are in good company!  Let me share four quick truisms about change in churches:

First, change is inevitable.  I initially resisted Facebook, but now I visit my site several times a day.  I loved video cassettes for years, but just threw several boxes of them in the trash.  E-books?  Love my Kindle.  Smart phone?  Just got a Droid 3.  iPod?  Greatest invention in history.

I even opened a Twitter account several weeks ago because of the importance of social media in ministry marketing.

My point: Christians can identify specific cultural shifts and use them to our advantage or we can drag our feet and appear culturally irrelevant.  Sometimes it’s better to get out ahead of the curve.

Second, change is painful.  Change can make us feel anxious, uncomfortable, and even stupid.  Think about how you felt when you first started learning how to use a computer.  I messed up so many times.  “What do I do when my computer freezes?  How do I get out of this program?  Where’s my typewriter?”

My wife and I have lived in four different places within the past two years.  We’ve had to pay for moving vehicles and packing materials.  We’ve needed to ask friends and family for assistance in carrying our belongings.  And my lower back has taken a beating.  The next time we move, there will be more discomfort – but pain is the price we pay for change.

And yet after a while, when things settle down, we forget about our initial pain.  I’ve been hauling around three computers with me for a long time.  Last Saturday, I recycled them – and watched as those hard drives were inserted into a machine and mashed.  It was difficult giving them up – but today, I don’t miss them at all.

Third, change is positive.  Thirteen years ago, I announced my resignation as pastor to a congregation I dearly loved.  Because many people didn’t see my departure coming, I was concerned how it would be received.  One wise woman, who was also an attorney, told me, “Change is good.”

I never forgot her words.

Change is good.  Most of the major milestones in our spiritual lives occur because of change.  We can wait until we’re ready to change internally – something most of us aren’t good at – or God can force us to change through the use of external circumstances.

The same is true of churches.  They tend to drift unless they are forced to change.  And if they resist, they can die a slow death.

Eleven years ago, my wife and I visited a church near the top of the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, Scotland.  The songs were from the Psalter and sung accapella.  While the pastor’s message was biblical, he didn’t use any illustrations or make any applications.  The pews were HARD, the lighting was abysmal – and there were less than 35 people in attendance.  Some of the other area churches had already closed their doors, and I was concerned for this church’s survival because it wasn’t making the necessary changes to stay relevant.  (However, it’s still there!)

Church on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, Scotland

Churches can survive without making important changes, but they cannot thrive.  If a church is going to reach its community for Christ, it must embody corporate change before calling people to personal conversion, the greatest change of all.

Finally, change is biblical.  Eve was certainly a change for Adam.  The flood was an unprecedented change for Noah.  God called Abraham to move to a new location he knew nothing about.  Bethel marked a change for Jacob.  A pit, a prison, and a prime minister’s role were all changes for Joseph.  Egypt was a change for Moses.

The prophets called God’s people to change.  The best Jewish kings (like Hezekiah) instituted major changes in their kingdoms.  But Jonah ran because he didn’t want to see Gentiles change toward Yahweh.

Jesus brought all kinds of changes to Judaism, didn’t He?  And His apostles changed the world.

Thelogical liberals have tried to change the Christian message while keeping their methods largely static.  But evangelicals have guarded the gospel message while constantly changing their methods.

Which is the more biblical approach?

I think most Christians accept the fact that our churches need to keep changing methodologically.  But we struggle most with how change is instituted.

That will be my topic next time.