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.
Today we face a culture that is fast changing,
and that change has not been lost on those of us in the church.
Change is never trivial no matter how small
that change may be. I remember the first time I ditched my robe while pastoring
one Sunday morning a number of years ago in a church I served, and you can’t
imagine the uproar from some of those in the 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 even small change
can produce.
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 have to 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.
Pastor and author J.D. Greear shares a story
that really touched me.
He tells of a lady in his church who had a
great appreciation for handbell music.
She discovered the church was about to sell
their handbell set so they could purchase some newer music equipment,
specifically some new guitars. “This lady, who loved worship, was more of the
organ, bells, and horns persuasion than that of drums and guitars."
Confronting the pastor, she shared something
that he didn’t know. Those hand bells, which had been stored away in the closet
for a number of years, were the result of a gift her mother had given to the
church shortly before she died.
In speaking with the woman, Greear writes
“After a couple of long, awkward seconds, I said to her, “Well, don’t you think
your mom in heaven would be glad to see us using instruments that would help us
reach this next generation-including her grandkids and their friends?”
“She thought about that for a second, and then
said, ‘Well, yes . . . I suppose my mom would be happy with that.’”
“She requested that we not sell the hand bells
but donate them to another church, which we gladly did. Yet she did not resist
seeing them go, and she did not leave our church when we shifted our worship to
a more contemporary one. Today over 2,000 college students attend our church
each weekend.”
Greear concludes the story with these words:
“Because of the selflessness of this woman and many others, our church is
reaching a whole new generation. Gaining by Losing, J. D. Greear,
p. 90
It is true that as the late Robert Schuller
once wrote, “Every end is a new beginning.”
And those of us who protest change may miss the
joy of seeing what God is ready to do with “new beginnings.”
Yours in faith and friendship,
Pastor Tom
No comments:
Post a Comment