In my life one thing I could count on growing up was change. My father worked as a logger, a trucker, and a pastor. He would do one occupation for a while and then move into pastor and give his heart and soul and burn out and then would take a break and go back to trucking for a while then he would take another church and give up another piece of himself for the sake of God’s church. We moved many times in my childhood, so therefore change was the one constant in my life. It was difficult at times, but it developed a part of me that I would never have if I did not experience change. I am able to talk to anyone anytime, I am open to new ideas and (not always, but sometimes) not be threatened by them. I have learned to step out of my comfort zone, and therefore that has helped me to change many things in my life that required maturing, and still do! I am sure there are many other advantages that I am not thinking of right now. But I have looked upon all of these moves, for a long time, in my life as a negative, to the point where I vowed that once my children started school they would never move from a community and have to start their lives over and meet new friends constantly like I had to.
As I look at our church in how God is trying to grow the church in our community that desperately needs God, and as I look into my life and how God is trying to change me from my selfishness and my sin, I realize change is the very stepping stone for all that God is trying to accomplish. The biggest example is from the old testament where we have the Jews and all their rituals they were required to do , then comes along our Saviour who radically changes their belief system and asks them to change. I wonder how many churches would follow him today if that was asked of us?
Another example of a “radical” change is repentance. What does a person go through when they come to the point of repentance? They come to the point of “confessing with their mouth “Jesus is Lord” and they believe in their heart that God raised them from the dead. For it is with their heart that they believe and are justified, and it is with their mouth that they confess and are saved.” Romans 10:9,10
Their desires change to obey God and His word, they change in their personality to better themselves to honour God. No longer stealing, foul mouths, killing, gaining the fruits of the spirit (patience, love, kindness etc.) and so forth. There are many examples of radical changes in the bible just a few are Mary Magdalene who was possessed with seven spirits (which is a symbol in the bible which means especially aggravated form or violent possession) www.biblystudytools.com
We also see Saul of Tarsus who jailed Christians and then was met on the road by God and was radically changed to Paul who carried out God’s ministry in a very radical way! There are many more examples throughout the bible….
So as we can see the very foundation of our Christianity is based upon change in a big way. Also throughout our lives as Christians we are to continuously change to better ourselves in our desire to be more like Him. So the one constant in a Christians life is Change!
In all honesty in my church I had become somewhat stagnant in some areas. Specifically in leading worship, I had learned to go from playing hymns, or classical type music to having to play contemporary worship in a band. This was a bit of a steep learning curve in some areas. I had learned over the years how to play without music and just following chords. But then I stopped learning in a way and got comfortable, not improving my skill even more, and possibly not knowing really how to. Then the ministry started to get a bit redundant and boring. Which then lead to my leading sometimes becoming that way as well. Also as a volunteer since I was not paid, perhaps gave me the so called “right” to be less then what God wanted me to be as a worship leader. Then we got a new senior pastor who asked for more from us, which challenged us and I learned more skills to improve our band and my leading. Then we got a worship pastor who asked for a big change from me, he wanted me to blend more in with the band vs always leading from the piano. This was hard to accept, I had to change my thinking, also deal with some of my pride, to the point where I was seriously considering quitting worship. This was taking me so far out of my comfort zone, and asking me to really change my playing, and giving up a part of who I am on the piano.
This is an example of just one scenario in many churches. We do things a certain way for many, many years and then someone comes and asks us to change in a radical way. Even though we look at the person that is asking us and we focus on that person vs perhaps God is asking us through that person to keep changing radically! If our Christian walk requires change on a constant basis, as we are desiring to be more like God and are maturing in many different aspects in our life why do we stop at the church? Why do we fight change in His house? The very place that we expect the most radical change in a persons life (repentance) to happen, we ask not to change God’s house. Why? Is it because we are stagnant in our Christian walk and are not changing ourselves on a constant basis? Is it because we are stagnant in our prayers in communion with God and in communication with Him on a constant basis? Is it because we are not worshipping Him as often as we ought to?
John 3:21 “But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.”
Everything we do should be seen plainly that it has been done through God. Wow!
Acts 2:42-45 “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods they gave to anyone as he had need….”
They devoted themselves to these things. To teaching, to fellowship, to breaking of bread, and to prayer. And look at what was accomplished when they did these things. And you notice it states they were together and had everything in common.
So what happened at the church? I looked at the church’s vision and what the congregation had voted on a few years ago as to where they want this church to be one day. And the goal is to become not just a community church but a regional church, and how are we going to do that in the worship ministry? I did most certainly mourn the loss of what is in the past. Some forms of music are gone, and will only be seen at special times in the church and not on a regular basis. Did that make me sad? Of course, that was something I had to accept. But what is more important? My feeling of wanting to keep the church at a certain level because I don’t want to change, nor challenge myself to a different level of worship, or do I do as what they did in Acts. When there was a radical change in the belief system of the Jews, what did some of them do? They devoted themselves to teaching, to fellowship, to breaking of bread, and to prayer. And look at what happened numbers were added daily. They were together and had everything in common….When we work together as a church we have to give up something personally in order to work together and have everything in common. We can’t just always put and easy going person (people person) with the not so easy going person (stronger in administrative skills person) to make that part of the ministry work. That easy going person has to learn to grow in administrative skills and to learn to not to please people all the time, just as the administrative type person has to learn to get along with God’s people and to care about them.
God is asking us to constantly change, and as I learned growing up that changing develops us, changes us, and keeps us from being stagnant in all aspects of our lives. In our churches God is asking them to change, which means we as individuals have to be open to change, and be changing ourselves. I needed to commit to the goal and vision of the church or not be part of it at all. This is asking some hefty sacrifices on my part. But I am also seeing the positive and beauty of the change, and that is exciting. We have to sacrifice in order to change. Sometimes they are little or do not really affect us much, but other times they really hit a part of something that you absolutely love. And what are you going to do? Trust in God, He is asking this for a reason. Remember this is for the greater good of God’s handiwork, but we must work together and in common in order for us to move forward and see those miraculous events in our churches. Sacrifice with your pastor, God is asking him to lead his flock. And remember he is human just like we all are. He may stumble sometimes along the way, but we are there to pick him up as he is there to constantly guide us and find us when we are lost.
2 Cor 7:1 Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.
Now that is change!
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