“There is a time for everything, a season for every activity under heaven.” Ecclesiastes 3:1
If there is one constant in this world it’s this—everything changes. In nearly every consultation I have with a church, especially one that is struggling with decline, I hear the lament, “Everything has changed, and nothing is as it used to be.”
Change happens all around us. It is external. We can see change. Look out at your community and inside your congregation. Has anything changed in ten years? One year? This week? Change is a constant part of life and often seems fast.
With change comes transition. Where change is often fast, transition is usually slow. While change is external (something happening to us or around us) transition is internal (something happening inside us). Transition is how we gradually make the internal adjustments necessary to navigate our way through change. Transition is the hardest part of change because it requires a lot from us.
Many years ago, I consulted with a church experiencing rapid decline as their city neighborhood changed due to the closure of several industries that employed many of its people. The church was mirroring the decline of the area and also facing closure. As part of my time with them I helped them understand the changes impacting their world and to consider the internal transitions they were experiencing as a congregation and individuals.
The internal transitions that came with their change involved three phases: ending, wandering, and embracing. See if you can recognize these in yourself or your congregation.
Transition was requiring them to let go of some things, to experience ending. Letting go of many church members and friends who sold their homes and moved away; letting go of a once vibrant children and youth ministry; letting go of a bank account that always seemed to have more money than they needed; letting go of a full-time pastor who would likely be replaced by a part-time person if they remained open at all. The ending of these things brought denial, shock, anger, frustration, stress and sadness. Endings can sometimes shake our faith and cause us to doubt God.
On the heels of some of these endings, transition caused this church to wander around a bit in a kind of wilderness while they tried to find where they fit into the vastly different community that was emerging around them. They wandered and wondered if God had any use for them and if they still had some semblance of missional vitality left for their community. Their wandering in this wilderness made them question who they were and who God was in this important season of change.
During the wandering, we did a study of the community to learn about the predominant population groups around them and their needs. Turned out the people most in need of their ministry were 22-year-old single African American mothers whose greatest needs were childcare and a safe place of Christian community.
With help, this remnant (white and mostly age 60 and above) caught a new vision of ministry to these young mothers and their children. Within six months they opened a day care center that they themselves ran and staffed. The new (and younger) part-time pastor sent to them brought a fresh, but different, approach to worship that appealed to many of these young families.
A year later, when I was invited to preach at this church, I found a congregation of younger and more diverse people with lots of small children and a group of seniors sprinkled throughout the sanctuary seated with their new friends. Endings, and the wandering that accompanies them, can lead us to embrace new beginnings we would never imagine possible were it not for God’s leading and our faithful response especially in times of change.
Whether the change your church is experiencing is perceived as good or bad, you and the people of your church are in the three-fold process of transition: ending some things, wandering around a bit in a kind of wilderness, and preparing to embrace the new beginning that comes with change.
Some thoughts for helping you to navigate the transitions of change:
- Endings- find ways to celebrate the past. Listen to the people around you and create space for them to express pain, sadness, fear and uncertainty without judgment. Design a ceremony to mark the endings.
- Wanderings- Work together to gain clarity on why your church exists, what values guide behavior, what you should be doing now, and spend intentional time listening for God. Get to know who is around you and begin conversations with them. Encourage folks to keep a journal/diary to jot down thoughts or ideas that come to them especially in times of prayer.
- Embrace- as you prepare to embrace whatever new beginning emerges for you, encourage your leadership to explain what the new beginning is, why it is important, the steps needed to get there and how everyone has a part to play in the new thing. Have faith that God is with you and will do a new thing!
Change is inevitable but it doesn’t mean it has to be the end of fruitfulness. In fact, it may be just the beginning. Right now, claim this promise- “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; can you see it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” (Isaiah 43:19 NIV). Contact evcoffice@susumc.org for more conversation and support!
A great resource for further reading and reflection is “Managing Transitions” by William Bridges.
