Change

This is an article I shared with our congregation in our March newsletter.

Change. I’ve been thinking a lot about change this past year.
I have been thinking about change because there are a lot of things going on in each of our lives. We experience aging. We experience new births and the death of loved ones. We experience change in our living situations. Some get married; Others divorced. Some of us have lost a job and with it more than income and insurance but also a sense of our identity and maybe a sense of our worth.

I have been thinking about change because we have all felt the impact on our lives of the economic recession we are experiencing. Our money does not stretch as far as it used to. I think of that every time Steve and I buy groceries. I think of this and I am more grateful than ever to have meaningful employment and a roof above our heads.

I have been thinking about change as we enter the season of Lent. It is a time of introspection and a time when we are called anew to ponder Jesus’ question “Who do you say I am?” and the questions of “who are we?” and “whose are we?” These are questions we have to answer as individuals and as a church body. If we answer, “Jesus in our LORD”, this means that we are called to follow and following is not a static, unchanging thing.

I have been thinking about change because of the election of Barak Obama. Whether we agree with his political views or not, it is undeniable that we are entering a new chapter in history.

I have been thinking about change because our church and our Indiana Conference are in the middle of great change and transition. As you know, the coming together of the North and South Indiana Conferences was approved last year and we are now deep in the transition time and implementation and working the nitty gritty details.

I have been thinking about change because Bethel is in transition and we are faced with decisions having to do with how to remain faithful as a church and faithful to our mission of making disciples of Jesus. You’ll hear more about this in the weeks and months to come.

I would venture to say that most of us, if not all of us, have mixed feelings about change: Change can be exciting and it can be scary and often change is all these things at once. We can embrace change or we can resist it. In the end, whether we embrace or resist change, it is inevitable and it is part of life.

I am talking with several people about change and how to negotiate transitions in our personal life as well as in our gatherings of people we call the church.

I went to a seminar in February, after having read several books from our presenter, and we talked about how to introduce change in churches. There are some good ways of doing this and there are not so good ways of doing this. One of the pastors who attended recalled how she served a church which had forgotten its purpose and which refused/never found ways to adapt to meet the needs of a changing neighborhood. They used to be a large downtown church, well attended by wealthy parishioners. But through the years, attendance dwindled to less than 50. They do have a beautiful, European-inspired, church, which only remains open because of an endowment fund. She said it looks more like a mausoleum than a church. What striked me is that she did not say, museum – which is bad enough; she said mausoleum - a place where the dead are buried. This saddened me. I know the church and another friend is serving there now. I hope he can help revive this place through the people in it and by inviting others to come and experience life with Jesus. This will require changing hearts and minds and it will require a lot of work on everyone’s part.

When I think of change and transitions, I think of the story of the Exodus in the Bible; how the people found themselves facing new situations. They had to learn new ways and they had to adapt and it did not always go very smoothly. Many even grumbled that the slavery in Egypt they had just left would be better than that they were experiencing in the wilderness. It’s interesting how we remember things. The good ol’ days were usually not as good as we might remember them. They grumbled so much that God ended up giving them a lot of extra time to think and hopefully mature. It also took the passing of the rebellious generation before the rest of the people could enter the Promised Land.

When I think of change and transitions, I also think of 1st and 2nd Peter. In these letters, the author, whom we think was the apostle Peter, exhorts the scattered Christians in Asia Minor (present day Turkey) to hold fast to their faith and their trust of God in the face of hardship. We started the study of these letters and what they have to say to us last Monday. It is not too late to join the study!

When I think of change and transitions, I think of prayer. As people of God we are called to pray without ceasing. I don’t believe we can live life very well and negotiate the inevitable changes and transitions, which come our way without talking with God and seeking His guidance.

When I think of change and transitions, I think of God because no matter what we all face, He is with us and will guide us through when we seek Him.

One question that our seminar leader asked - and that question haunts me in some ways - is “If your church closed, would anyone in the neighborhood, in the community, notice and care? Would your church be missed by anyone outside of it?”