But We’ve Always Done It This Way

At our last Beta-Vitality event the words above were identified as… evil. Well, not evil, but not helpful and to be avoided. If the church stays the same it will die. Change is a given – all of life is change and the task is not to set up some structure to fight the change but to know how to be transformed through the change.

The title of the Module is Welcoming and Anchoring Change by Anchoring a Process. Sound convoluted? It identifies a process as the anchor – the solid ground to stand on in the midst of change. Normally in the face of change we try to hold onto the structure of our lives – in the church, the programs, classes, worship schedule, staffing, committee structure – anything that feels normal. But if change is inevitable if we hold on to the structures of our church we will be resisting change and saying, “We’ve always done it this way!” To anchor ourselves in a process is to accept that we must change the structures of our church – classes must change, sometimes staffing has to be reassessed, programs will naturally come and go. What we need it guidelines to help us go through the change so that we are transformed.

One of the tools Rev. John Haller gave us is a 10 step process for dealing with change that actually starts with a bold remark: Remember to behave! The steps are:

What is under consideration? How important is this at this time? ((It seems natural to ask this but often we will assume that a new thing is good simply because we like it – we get all excited about the prospect of a new building, we work on the plans without first really discussing whether it is the right time to build.)
What is the underlying purpose that this is attempting to accomplish?
Who should be involved in the consideration? Who makes the decision?
Is this in line with our Church’s overall mission? (This begs the question, are we clear about what our mission is? I think we have made good progress in better identifying our purpose and mission, but the committee agreed we need to work on this some more. If we don’t share the vision, how will be agree on the change?)
In what other ways might this same purpose be accomplished?
(Is a new building the only/best way to deal with our growth?)
What factors must be considered? What obstacles overcome?
What next steps are needed?
Has there been sufficient prayer and consideration been given?
If this is true, Go for it!
Remember to thank everyone.

Many of the models like this that are coming into the church originated in the business world. I told the group that I have always been troubled with this because the church is different. For example, in the church, when we ask “who should be involved in the consideration?” we have to broaden the scope. In a business one can narrow those involved in making a decision in order to be more efficient. If this is done in the church many will feel left out. In Japan there is a saying: polishing the roots. It refers to going down to the very bottom of an organization to solicit feedback – in other words, everyone must be involved. In the church we are also talking about people, and the nature of our union is a family; families are very different than businesses.

Another way in which churches are different from is that businesses is that our mission is not profit, efficiency and growth. Of course we want to grow, but we are trying to create the Kin-dom of God. We have to look beyond what is good for the “share holders” and consider the whole – the good of the whole community and not just the members of it.

When we are faced with change in the church it is important that we don’t hold onto the way things have always been done. We have to pay attention to how we go about responding to change – what process are we following? We particularly have to be mindful of polishing the roots, understanding that we are a family and not a business. We have to communicate, communicate, communicate! And finally, I believe we have keep in mind that we are trying to recreate the kin-dom of God. Change is inevitable. The task is to make whatever change is coming transformative. P.Jim

So far in confirmation we have had classes on God, Jesus and the Bible. This coming Saturday the topic is, The Holy Spirit and Living a Christian life. Some of the things we will be talking about are: What is going on to perfection? What is holiness? Stages of Faith, Spiritual Disciplines, our Spiritual Biographies, Spiritual Experience and Spiritual gifts. We have a great class – please hold these young people in your minds and hearts.