Things Change - Adjust

This past week I had the joy of leading a couple of seminars on the subject of church transformation for several church leaders in northeastern New York. Though they kept telling me we were in Buffalo, I read the signs. We really met in Cheektowaga, New York. You know where that is, don't you? Yeah, me neither. It was a great time with some great people. I had the opportunity to renew a friendship with their Regional Minister and make a couple of new friends. It was time well spent.

At the core of talking about church transformation is change. Which is a no brainer. Because, if what we of the church are already doing was working, we wouldn't need transformation. Of course, every church I talk to is interested in transformation. Or should I say, they are interested in experiencing the great things transformation can bring to the church – life, vitality, excitement, ministry, new people and deeper relationships. They want the benefits. But only if they can experience those results without changing anything. We desperately desire to see the church grow. But we just as desperately don't want anything to change. And we can't have both. As a dear friend told me, "If you keep doing what you're doing, you'll keep getting what you've got."

I know enough about Buffalo that one had better be prepared for change if one is to live there. While I was visiting the weather was perfect, Chamber of Commerce weather – cloudless skies, high in the upper 80's with a nice breeze off of the lake. I went to lunch in a lovely restaurant overlooking a marina filled with beautiful sail boats. Then we took a walk along a beautiful lakefront park. What a perfect place to live. In the summer. But things are just a bit different in Buffalo in the winter. They don't measure their snowfalls in inches but in feet. As my father would say, "It gets colder than Billy Blue Blazes." (I have no idea what that means but I know it is cold.) Buffalo is a place where things change. Especially the weather.

The reality is, change is inevitable. The key to transformation is take some control of the change that happens and make sure those changes bring the results you desire. Lot's of the changes in our lives are uncontrollable. Those kinds of changes we must just accept and adjust to them.

Some changes recently came into my life. Some of those changes were my choice and some of those changes I feel I had very little control over. For whatever reasons, change came into my life and I found myself living alone and spending a huge majority of my time in solitude. It was a change that was difficult to deal with. I really struggled with it. I thought about it. I wrote about it. Several of my dear friends responded to my writings by making fun of me. What would one do without friends? Most people just ignored me.

I have been "alone" for about three months now. And I have adjusted to that change. As much as I first hated it, I have now adjusted to living alone and spending most days in solitude. And I like it. So, as I am able to adjust to the changes in my life, perhaps there is hope for churches to adjust to the changes required for transformation. I hope so because if our churches fail to transform, they will surely die.

Copyright © 2011, William T. McConnell, All Rights Reserved