“Enduring The Season of Change”

“Enduring The Season of Change” The winds of change are blowing fiercely in Second Nazareth Baptist Church. Change affects us all in our lives some more serious than others. Moving houses, changing jobs, divorces, losing a loved one, death, relocating to new countries where you experience the culture shock are all types of change that one may face. Dealing with change can be a difficult, stressful, and challenging process. Even positive change requires adjustment of our perceptions or ourselves, others, and the world around us. Even when changes are normal and predictable, there is some level of social readjustment needed. Change need not be a feared or devastating occurrence. When the ingredients for healthy change are employed change can be a blessing and opportunity. Looking at how to deal with change in churches, we can learn from our willingness to accept nature’s changing seasons. Especially if we understand churches also have seasons. Nature’s seasons change before our eyes. Churches change much more slowly, and their seasons are measured more in decades than in months. But the cycles of birth, growth, maturity, decline and death that we see in nature also apply to congregations. No matter how successful a congregation becomes, it will at some point decline. This may happen within 50 years, or a church might go strong for 300 years, but it will decline. And when decline becomes evident, people’s first instinct is to fight to survive. The great irony is the very success that propelled the church for 100 years or more may become its nemesis as people try to preserve how things have always been done. A church with a long history values stability over risk-taking because the people think they’ve already got something that works. A new church has an advantage. A new church finds it much easier to risk seeking the new thing God may be inviting them to. A new church is just beginning its search for its identity, purpose and sense of call. It doesn’t have to break away from “how it’s always been done.” Simply “old” churches can become new churches by being born again and exploring new ideas and concepts leading to new energy and life within the congregation. Even the freedom in a “new” church doesn’t come without challenges. The congregation’s life will become chaotic if the people don’t find some sense of how to function together. They will want church life to become more predictable and less volatile. This is part of a maturing process, of finding stability. Over time, as the congregation adjusts its ministry and structure, it develops habits of relating and making decisions. If done well, this will lead to growth, a well- defined identity in the community and an effective ministry. But eventually the church will find itself in decline. It may have done such a good job of stabilizing it falls into a rut and won’t risk a new path. Churches are much more like gliders than like jets. They depend on fresh winds of God’s Spirit to take flight. Once we begin to lose altitude, the only way out of decline is to be reborn. If a congregation can find rebirth through discovering the place where its gifts and passions intersect with the community’s needs, a new energy and mission can carry it forward. It is our desire to grow into another century of ministry as we poise to take our position in our community, and take on the challenges of this new millennium. In order to do this we must restructure, make plans for the future, redevelop, and add new ministries. I know this is scary. To some, it may be overwhelming as things are changing all around us. I also know some members of the family are having difficulty accepting our changes. To some the equilibrium of the church is being upset. We have restructured our ministries, adopted new procedures, moved to tithing and offering as the way we support the financial stability of the church, consolidated some functions, merged some groups and activities, moved to partner with organizations whose mission line up with the mission of our church. The list goes on, however, change is not necessarily a bad thing, especially when the change is necessary to survive and live out a greater purpose. We should expect some changes in church simply because with new leadership, we have new vision and thus a new direction. Furthermore, we are not changing just to change! We are changing to remain on the cutting edge of ministry and to be effective in the 21st Century. We must realize nothing comes to stay, and everything comes to pass. A departure from the “old” and arrival of the “new” means something has to die, but when something dies it provides a chance for rebirth. Thus, life begins again and a new creation starts to flourish. When we started a new life in Christ, our carnal (natural) man had to die first, but once we died to our trespasses and sins, we were resurrected to a new life in Christ. That is what being born again is all about. Coping With Change When change happens, we have two choices. We can either embrace the change and move forward into a new life or situation or we can stay stuck and stagnant in the past keeping things as they are. Change affects us in different ways and our ability to deal with the issues varies from person to person based on how strong we feel at the time or how weak we feel at the time and what is going on at the time. Sometimes, change occurs so quickly, in fact, we no longer have the luxury of adapting to it gradually. Nonetheless, change is inevitable and we must learn how to become managers of the change. One of the best ways to deal with change is to simply accept the change as a reality. Acceptance is the opposite of rejection or resistance. Acceptance keeps your mind calm and positive. The minute you accept a change has occurred you immediately become more capable of dealing with the change and turning it to your advantage. Instead of resisting change, we have to develop the habit of welcoming and working with it and through it. The future belongs to those who anticipate change, welcome it and have a plan to respond to it positively. We'll never be able to completely control change, but we can manage our participation in it and our reaction to it. The process of change can be both the most exciting and the most stressful experience as sometimes things have to get worse before they get better." This is very true. Think about when going through some stressful times of change. Whether major or minor changes, there is a new sensing in our body, our mind, and our spirit. Although change is constant, it nevertheless presents problems to most of us unless we look at change through the eyes of faith. In general, we don't like change and we don’t want to be put through it. Change involves friction and discomfort but it is also the repositioning to a better state and location where our productivity can be realized. We are often afraid of it just as we are of the unknown. As creatures of habit, we are usually more secure and comfortable with the familiar we don’t want the faith walk of the unseen, we want to stay to what we know. Change may affect our security and expose us to so much anxiety and stress. Our service area, our status, and our personal relationships and our well-established habits and routines are all interfered with and are shaken. Accordingly, it should not be surprising many people have a marked tendency to resist change. It is important you recognize this resistance in yourself and in others. It is perfectly human, natural and to be expected. We can recognize the source of the problems with change. A good attitude shift can minimize and even overcome resistance to change. Shock and Denial Always when we first hear the news something is changing, we go through shock, denial of the truth, confusion, fear, numbness, blame. People say things like "I can't believe this is happening" or "Oh my!" Some exclaim, “Pastor is making a mistake.” or “Pastor hurt our feelings”. They may even deny the thing has happened and ask questions like, "Am I dreaming or is this is real?" When things change, especially unexpectedly without warning, our first and very normal reaction is to deny it; denial is a coping mechanism. We approach change with the attitude if we ignore change and wait long enough hoping it will go away, things will get back to normal. Anger and resistance, follows after the shock. Frustration, anxiety, irritation, embarrassment and shame may move us to take frustration out on someone else or blame someone else for our situation. Then we immediately start dialoging and bargaining with circumstances. When you're ready to move on you are more able to accept what has happened, start to explore new options and put plans in place for the future. Then you can return to "normality." "Normality" may not be possible in some cases, but once you have accepted the situation, moving forward to a more meaningful existence is once again possible and can be realized very easily. Accept Change and Become a Manager of It Accepting change, learning to adapt, to cope, and ultimately to triumph through it, is an underrated thing and most people take it lightly. We are not born equipped to deal with change, but everyone can learn to cope with change, change offers opportunities, each with its own separate pros and cons. When we are confronted with change, explore mentally all the options the change will bring. And we naturally learn to adapt to change. Making a change requires new ways of thinking, feeling, and acting. It can take a lot of repetition to master and integrate these new ways of being. Let us look at the limitations we all put on ourselves and how they hold us back from being open to change. Many churches in America are experiencing decline. Congregations are struggling to maintain their viability. I pray Second Nazareth will not meet this challenge with acts motivated merely by a desire for self-preservation. I pray we will have willing hearts to answer God’s invitation to be born anew and to embrace the rushing wind of the Spirit. I am counting on all leaders, ministry directors, and members of our church family to embrace change, and become managers “change” with me. Your Pastor and Friend For Life, JRN