Tag: change

The Challenge of Change

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Exploring Church Ministry BlogLeave a comment
 
 
            People are all for change – we just typically want everybody else to change but ourselves.  Just say the word “change” in a church and you will get responses from some guy going apoplectic about not changing ‘on his watch’ to another person lamenting loudly over the lack of change within the congregation, to every response in-between.  Peter Steinke, a respected church consultant who deftly applies systems-theory to congregations, has made the most basic of observations:  “Change is a magnet for emotional reactions.”
 
            Every church leader has inevitably run into an emotional buzzsaw when attempting some sort of change, whether minor or major.  When people feel they are losing control or not getting what they want from a proposed change, they might try and throw a monkey wrench in the whole deal through some means of sabotage.  Yes, it does happen in churches.  People do not always play well or fair.  There are individual parishioners who will go to almost any length to have things their way or keep an existing system entrenched.  As a result, some pastors and leaders wither under the pressure, afraid of the emotional reactivity that might result from implementing some sort of change.  But when we take up the mantle of leadership, like Nehemiah of old, we regulate ourselves to staying on task even when the naysayers and saboteurs look for a way to frustrate the vision (Nehemiah 6:1-15).
 
            It must be kept in mind that every healthy living organism will grow, change, and reproduce.  Churches that never change are unhealthy.  At the least, they are just plain ineffective at ministry; at the worst, they become stagnant pools dispensing spiritual death.  But good outcomes can and do happen as leaders take courage to address issues and implement change without abandoning the goal.  The Apostle Paul stated the goal like this:  “I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.  I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him… I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow to attain to the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 3:8-11).
 
            Sometimes, we as church leaders do not immediately think like Paul.  We desire a successful ministry, full of resurrection power, but neglect the bald reality that there must be suffering.  You cannot have a resurrection without having a death.  Paul embraced suffering and death as the means of attaining new life.  It would be sage for us all to reflect on this and how it applies to our ministries.  Change is typically a slow, often painful process, of dying to self and old ways and re-awakening to a new spiritual life of knowing Jesus Christ.  In order to truly know Christ, we will experience difficulty.  Our congregations are going to know Christ not by always having their way and/or never having to endure the hardship of change.  No, they are going to know Christ through sharing in his sufferings.
 
            Resistance to change will come.  Bank on it.  Plan for it.  Anticipate it.  It will happen. I have to admit that I am no expert in this area.  I have made more mistakes and flubbed more ideas and attempts at ministry than you can possibly imagine.  From the school of hard knocks, here is what I have learned:  it takes a lot of blood, sweat, and tears to move an existing congregation to a new way of seeing and living; and, there needs to be a biblical goal in order to stay the course and realize transformation.  I believe the best goal is to help people know Christ better, and introduce people who don’t know him to a new relationship with Jesus.  All our strategic plans need to keep on track toward this grand pursuit of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord.
 

 

            So, what will you do to help move such a goal forward?  How will you work together with others to achieve knowing Christ?  In what ways will you deal with the inevitable resistance to change?  What things do you need to put to death in order to realize new life?  Where do faith, hope, and love fit into your plans for growth and change?  Let’s all pray for one another, so that we come to maturity in Christ together, knowing Jesus better and living and loving like him in all things.  So may it be.  Amen.

Pronoun Trouble

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Exploring Church Ministry BlogLeave a comment
 
 
One of my favorite Warner Brothers cartoons is the 1952 “Rabbit Seasoning.”  Check out the hilarious dialogue between Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck:
Bugs Bunny [to Elmer]:  Would you like to shoot me now or wait till you get home?
Daffy Duck: Shoot him now! Shoot him now!
Bugs Bunny: You keep outta this! He doesn’t have to shoot you now!
Daffy Duck: He does so have to shoot me now! [to Elmer]: I demand that you shoot me now!
[Elmer shoots him.]
Daffy Duck: Let’s run through that again.
Bugs Bunny:  Okay.  [in a flat tone]: Would you like to shoot me now or wait till you get home?
Daffy Duck: [flat tone] Shoot him now, shoot him now.
Bugs Bunny: [flat tone] You keep outta this. He doesn’t hafta shoot you now.
Daffy Duck: [with sudden passion] Ha! That’s it! Hold it right there! [speaking to the audience]: Pronoun trouble.  [to Bugs]  It’s not: “He doesn’t have to shoot *you* now.” It’s: “He doesn’t have to shoot *me* now.” Well, I say he does have to shoot me now! [to Elmer]  So shoot me now!
[Elmer shoots him.]
 
            Pronouns are important.  I am not trying to be some weird grammar nerd (although I would be okay with that reference).  What I am attempting to get at is that the use of pronouns in the way Christians talk and write belies how we view ourselves, our world, the church, and, even God.  If we are not careful, pronoun trouble will get us sidelined from God’s agenda for the church.
 
            For example, a person comes up to the pastor and says something like “we don’t like _____.”  Go ahead and fill in the blank.  It could be anything.  The gun goes off.  The important thing to note is that an individual is speaking on behalf of a group, or the entire congregation.  That says a lot about the person.  It says that not only is the person taking on a grandiose position of assuming that he/she knows what everyone else is thinking, but, maybe even more significantly, this person does not differentiate him/her self from the group.  The person is so enmeshed in the group or system that speaking as an individual is not practiced.  Many people within the church need the ability to step back and discern what it is they actually need and want, then be able to state “I would like to see ______.” 
 
            Let’s take the opposite kind of example.  A parishioner approaches another congregant and emphatically states something like, “my needs are not getting met here, so I am going elsewhere.”  In this case, the individual is too detached from the larger congregation and can only use the personal pronoun.  The parishioner needs to adopt some plural pronouns in order to better connect with others.  The real problem is one of not having a sense of community and the role that the individual plays within it.  There is too much of a focus on self and not a missional sense of working together to achieve a noble cause.
 
            So, then, there are here two approaches to be avoided.  On the one hand, some congregations can be so entrenched in a particular system and way of doing things that they cannot imagine doing things differently.  “We have always done it this way” are the seven deadly words of the church.  On the other hand, there is the solitary person who can never quite seem to think of others but constantly evaluates everything done in the church through the filter of what she can get out of it for herself. 
 
            How Christians talk of others outside the church is also of much importance.  “They” and “them” are pronouns that can easily be used to refer to some nameless people that we do not want within the fellowship.  It is prescient to keep in mind that a pronoun refers to a proper name.  Who are “they?”  Are “they” really a threat?  It would be much better to define who we are talking about and why. Sometimes pronouns are not the best way to talk to each other.  “The missions team would like to reach young urban professionals with the gospel of Jesus” is better than an amorphous “we do not want them in our church services.”
 

 

            I hope you get the picture here.  Pronouns are important.  Their proper use can either further the mission of the church, or they can get us into trouble.  Pay attention to language, because it has been given to the church as a sacred trust.

Confession of Sin

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Exploring Church Ministry BlogLeave a comment
 
 
            “If we confess our sins he (God) is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).  This is a tremendous promise – forgiveness and cleansing from all sin.  Yet, it cannot be activated apart from confession and admitting one’s true condition.  Secret sins tucked away deep in the soul will only fester and boil, while on the outside the snakes of temptation slither around our feet seeking to immobilize us with fear.  The result of un-confessed sin is spiritual blindness, darkness, and death.  When Scripture speaks about confession, it does not just mean a private personal confession; it also means a corporate and public confession.  “Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you might be healed” is the unambiguous command of the Bible (James 5:16).
 
            There cannot be new life and renewal, revival, or revitalization of church life and ministry apart from real honest tell-it-like-it-is biblical confession.  If this scares the hell out of you, it really should.  Dealing with sin radically is what Jesus talked about in his Sermon on the Mount when he said we should pluck our eyes out if they offend and cut our hands off if they cause us to sin because it is better to be in God’s kingdom with no eyes and hands than to burn in hell with our parts intact (Matthew 5:29-30).  Confession is more than simply mouthing some words about not being perfect and a sinner like everybody else; it is to lead to a complete turn-around and change of how we live our lives.
 
            If we have besetting sins that dog us on a regular basis and we do all the same things this year that we did last year to deal with it and it did not work, then we will be right back to the same place next year in the season of Eastertide carrying the very same burden of guilt, shame, and regret.  Walking away from the church will not deal with it.  Walking away from God will not deal with it.  Trying some new teaching or new practice will not make it go away because that is only re-arranging the inner furniture of the soul.  No, only agonizing spirit-rending yet freeing confession will allow God’s clean surgical knife to take out the offending sin and bring spiritual and even physical healing.
 
            Patricia Raybon in her book I Told the Mountain to Move shares the regret and grief she carried after aborting two children.  She writes, “I had told myself than an abortion would end my problems, not complicate them by bringing an innocent life into my own upheaval.”  She shares a courageous and heart-wrenching confessional letter she wrote to her two aborted children:
Dear Babies:
This is Mama.  You will know my voice, I think, even though we were together for such a short time.  I did a bad thing.  I did not trust God.  I did not understand that God would have made everything okay.  I was like Peter… who looked down at the waves, not at Jesus.  And when he looked at the waves, he started to sin – down, down, down.
That’s how I felt, like I was sinking down.  When the doctors said you were growing inside of me, that’s how I felt, like I was sinking down…. So, I didn’t know how to love you.  I was afraid.  So I let fear convince me that more babies would just make things worse.
Instead, look what I did.  I robbed us.  First, I robbed you – taking your own lives… I didn’t think I was strong enough.  So I robbed myself of all the joy you would have brought me too.  Brought all of us, your sisters, your family, and for each of you, your daddy.  I thought we would have more problems. That we did not have enough money. That we did not have enough time.  That we did not have enough love.  But I just did not know then that God is bigger.  And God would make everything all right.  I didn’t know….”
 

 

Genuine authentic change will not occur without first dealing squarely with our past thinking, choices, and behavior.  This is why some form of a prayer of confession really needs to happen at every church worship service.  Ignoring such a vital liturgical prayer and practice will, at best, leave people with no guidance for confronting sin; and, at worst, will teach people that confession is not necessary to Christianity and leave them a spiritual mess.  Instead, the carefully constructed prayer of confession can lead believers to unburden the things they have done, and the things they have left undone.  Only then will we experience the advocacy of Jesus Christ who speaks on our behalf because of his once-for-all atoning sacrifice for sins.  This stuff is really too important to blow-off.  Church pastors and leaders need to put some real time and prayer into understanding the dynamics of confession, repentance, and new life because they are all vitally linked.  It is the first step to a spiritual breakthrough.

Transitions

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Exploring Church Ministry BlogLeave a comment
 
 
            At the beginning of this year I could not have anticipated that I would have to face the kinds of changes that have happened in my life.  So far into this year my oldest daughter and grandson have moved in; my wife had major surgery with a host of complications afterwards; my Mom passed away; and, if God didn’t think I had enough changes in my life right now, church ministry has taken a radical turn for me with my beloved associate pastors leaving.  Some changes we encounter are big, some small; some are good, some are bad; most are bittersweet.  The thing about change is that even though we know it will happen and may like it, the transition from one thing to another is the stinker that usually trips us up.  It is the getting from one place to another that gets the attention and the difficulty.  For example, going to Grandma’s house is a good thing; the five hour drive there with cramped car space and ornery kids is not.  If we could eliminate the transition, we’d do it in a heartbeat.  The same is true for church ministry.  Starting a new ministry is a cool thing; changing from a big bible study or worship service to a network of small groups may be a wonderful initiative; grafting spiritual practices into traditionally business-like meetings is an improvement.  But it is that dang transition time that trips us all up, and it is the transitions that need as much attention as the change itself.
 
            Think about it this way:  when Jesus came to this earth and lived, taught, was crucified, died, rose from death, ascended and glorified, this was all really good stuff.  But the Jewish people had to make a transition from worship focused in the particular place of Jerusalem as a particular covenant people to focusing on Jesus as the fulfillment of all the promises that they anticipated for centuries with a Gentile people that they were not too crazy about.  Most either could not or would not make the transition.  The Apostle Paul spent most of his Christian life trying to help his fellow Israelites come to grips with making the transition from Judaism to Christianity – and he usually got beat up for it, both verbally and physically.
 
            Transitions are hard.  We’d rather not do them.  But with every change there is a transition time that must be faced and walked through.  If we ignore this reality, we will find ourselves unable to navigate the changes that are chosen not to mention becoming downright depressed with the changes foisted upon us by others and by sheer circumstance.  Here are some things that I have found help me to handle the changes that occur, and to make it through the transitions from one reality to another:
 
1.      Maintain personal spiritual disciplines.  If the change is one that I did not choose, then having regular times of silence and solitude, prayer and bible reading, fasting and journaling help me make sense of what is happening and put it in proper perspective.
 
2.      Maintain personal health practices.  Freaking out by burning the candles at both ends, forgetting to eat sensibly, and ignoring exercise only exacerbates the change and makes the transition time unbearable.  Instead, take the time necessary to remain healthy through proper sleep, nutrition, and activity.
 
3.      Grieve your losses.  Lament, I would argue, is a spiritual practice – a necessary one.  It is also biblical.  To focus on next steps without acknowledging transition is to set oneself up for later emotional difficulty and/or trauma.  Unpack the heart and allow yourself to feel the loss.
 
4.      Be patient.  God is rarely in a hurry about anything.  He cares more about our spiritual growth and character development than avoiding painful transitions.  Let him teach you all that you need to learn.
 
5.      God never changes.  Times change, but God doesn’t.  Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  Let this truth be a ballast to the challenges of transition.
 
6.      Listen, learn, and lead.  The time to start listening to others is before change happens.  Learn all you can, especially as a pastor or church leader, and shepherd others with the spiritual resources you have gained over a lifetime of experience.
 

 

Churches are sometimes notorious for being inflexible and allergic to change.  But, after all, they are made up of real flesh and blood people.  To struggle with change is to be human.  Let’s first help ourselves to know how to cope with needed transitions so that we can do the important work of moving people from one spiritual place to another in order that the Body of Christ can thrive and not just survive.  May it be so, to the glory of God.