Dealing with change ...

The old saying is "the only person who likes change is a wet baby". It is a cute saying with a fair amount of accuracy connected to it as well. It is not completely accurate, there are those among us who embrace change. I am often one of those, much to the dismay of many people in the congregations I have pastored. Many people will say "we have never done it that way before" and they use that statement a reason to keep things the same. I have a tendency to hear "we have never done it that way before" and think cool, let's give it a shot.

The real question is, will this change be better for the family, the church, the community, my spouse, my kids, my health, etc...? The question most frequently answered is, will this change upset my comfort or routine? The first question is the better one to consider. The second question does not take others into consideration.

I have to remember that change just for the sake of change isn't the best move. It isn't much better than the attitude of "I shall not be moved".

We made a huge change at our church last week. I mentioned it in Monday Morning Musings post this week. We moved our Sunday morning Sunday School ministry to Sunday evening. We still have one class that meets at the historical time on Sunday morning. This is for those who cannot come back in the evening, or will not come out on a Sunday evening. The rest of our groups meet in the evening. We made this change after considering it for a couple of years. The real focus was that we were not reaching children or youth on Sunday mornings at 9:30. Those numbers just kept going down. However, whenever we did ministry for the children or youth on a Sunday evening we would reach a lot more of them. So we determined that we really needed to make this change if the children and youth really mattered.

I really did not know if it would work or not, I also realize that one week is just the opening scene of a feature length picture. The one week evaluation is outstanding. There were several more children in attendance, the youth were up and the adults actually went up as well. The overall number was up around 25% over our average. Now we keep at it and see if this trend continues. We also look to see if we have people who drop away because of the change and reach out to them.

The change was uncomfortable to many. Some just from a tradition and preference stand point and some for a true scheduling conflict. But the question of "what's best for the whole body?"

Are there changes you should be making in your life? Changes in eating habits, exercise patterns, sleep habits, relational choices, serving others, etc ...?

Here's hoping you make the changes that are best for all concerned.