Reflections on Change - Part I

by Jeff Bills       

In a recent conversation with a leader from an area church, I innocently asked, “So, how are things going at the church?” His response was, “Not good.” He went on to tell me about the steady decline in attendance and membership that they have been experiencing for several years. He sadly reported that the congregation had lost all of their younger people and is now completely made up of senior citizens. Then he said something that I will not soon forget, “Somewhere along the way...” he said with real sadness, “...we forgot to change.” The failure to accept change on non-core issues resulted in a community of faith that will cease to exist within the next decade. How tragic and unnecessary.

We have been undergoing a number of changes here at HOPE over the past year, some are very visible, others are less so. I want to address the issue of change in both this week’s bulletin front and next week’s as well. This week, I want to address motivations for change and next week I will focus on our response to change. I hope that it will give greater perspective to the changes that you see, as well as open up greater dialogue about these changes.

It seems to me that there are four primary motivations for initiating change, whether those changes are personal or in our community life. The way I would describe these four are; pain, love of chaos, an epiphany, and lastly, response to the prompting of the Holy Spirit.

Pain is a real motivator for change. When staying the same hurts more than the fears associated with change – a willingness to try something new opens up. The story of the exodus out of Egypt begins with Pharaoh resisting God until the level of pain became greater than the change that was required. Unfortunately, many of us have a high tolerance for pain and so needed change is slow in coming.

Sometimes change is more a love for chaos than it is about making positive change. The book of Ephesians talks about people who get tossed around by chasing after every new teaching (Eph. 4:14). Change just for the sake of change creates an environment of chaos and confusion that is unhealthy.

A third motive for change is an epiphany. Sometimes a person or community will have an “a-ha” moment that causes an immediate change in direction. The Apostle Paul has such a moment when Jesus appeared to him and completely turned his life around. It was an epiphany moment when the Lord called me to plant a church in Voorhees. A single event or moment causes an almost immediate change that has lasting implications.

The fourth motivation for change happens in response to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Unlike the dramatic nature of an epiphany, promptings of the Spirit are subtle and often multi-faceted. As people pray for God to lead and guide them, the Spirit is at work doing exactly that in ways that we do not see in any given moment. What is happening is that the Spirit is creating circumstances designed to direct us in the direction we are to go. These circumstances come in a variety of forms such as conversations, insights that are confirmed by others or, what Bruce Main of Urban Promise calls, “Holy Hunches.” Of all of the motives for change I believe that the Spirit prompting is the most common and the most widely ignored. Because change can be difficult, unsettling, and at times painful – we simply choose to ignore the promptings. The result is missed opportunity for growth.

Next week I want to explore how we respond to change.

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