Dear Friends,
Someone said the only one that likes changing is a wet baby. The person
was probably right. Change is not always a popular experience, and it can
produce a lot of damage if it is not done wisely, carefully, and lovingly.
Change is never trivial no matter how small that change may be. I
remember the first time I ditched my robe in a church I served. You can’t
imagine the uproar it caused in those pews. “What is Tom doing walking around
the pulpit teaching without wearing a robe?” It was as if I had ascended the
pulpit in my birthday suit. I can write and laugh about it today, but I can
tell you I wasn’t quite prepared for the reaction I received. That experience
was a stark reminder to me of the ‘tumult’ that change can produce, no matter
how small that change may be.
Today we face major changes in the church. A friend of mine who is
a church consultant suggests the last time the church faced this kind of change
was the Protestant Reformation, over 500 years ago.
The Pandemic has forced church change in ways most of us
could never have imagined. Whoever thought that 20-40 percent of church members
would suddenly be sitting at home on Sundays watching their church services
over the internet. And many of those sitting on sofas and worshipping from the
comfort of their living rooms, may choose never to return to the sanctuary. We
may not like these changes, but they are most likely here to stay, and so we
must find ways to adapt and adjust to those changes if we want to remain
relevant.
I love to be in live services where I can sing, pray, and worship,
and where I can hold and hug other brothers and sisters in Christ. But there
are some brothers and sisters who may choose to never return to be held and
hugged. As a result, the church must find ways to adapt and adjust to meet our
changing culture. We should not see this as an unwanted compromise-giving in to
culture- but doing something new and exciting to reach our culture. I don’t
particularly like such change, and while it may be a hard and painful reality
for me to accept, I know to ignore it could diminish our outreach to a sizeable
segment of our population that needs to hear the gospel.
I don’t want to be among those echoing the famous seven last words
of the church- “We never did it this way before” and lose an opportunity to
reach those who might not grow up worshipping the way I do.
When people allow their own personal preferences to usurp the
church’s efforts to reach people for Christ, the church is in danger of
becoming irrelevant. When change happens in the church that I don’t like, I
must always remind myself that the church is not here to serve me and my
preferences or traditions. It is here to reach the world, and if that change
can help in accomplishing that goal, I better be championing it no matter how I
personally feel about it.
I am encouraged when I think of Isaiah’s words, “See I am doing a
new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the
wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” (Isaiah 43:19).
In the end, I know the church is His Church, and I can stand on the
promise that because it is, the Gates of Hell shall never prevail against it.
Yours in faith and friendship,
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