Experiences In Church Transformation

The Problem

The biggest problem with the church.......... THE CHURCH

Over the last few days I have been giving a lot of thought to a concept that I read in a book called "The Shack".  While this book was a piece of Christian fiction, I found that there were some awesome concepts within its pages.  One of these concepts dealt with the Church.  A main character in the book identified that the Church had become a human institution and because of that had destorted main concepts about God.  The character also asserted that the institution had damaged many lives.

As I have chewed on this some, I have come to agree wholeheartedly.  While I think that what the Church has become is just a part of the natural evolution of human endeavors, I do not believe that we have to be satisfied with it.  I find that most of my frustrations in the role of a leader within the Church is due not to people or the ministry that I am engaged in, the frustrations come from dealing with the institutional aspect of the church.

The only way that I can find to change this course that the Church seems to be on is far from anything innovative.  It is plain and very simple.  We need to take out more of us (humans that seem to think we know what the Church and world needs) and invite more of the Lord to enter.  I am convinced that only the Lord is capable of changing our direction.  The reason that we are not willing to do this is that the process is going to be painful and it will require us to surrender power and authority.  It will require us to sacrafice those things that we view as indispensable.  It will require us to submit to the love of the Lord.

Are we truly ready for this?  I hope so because the alternative looks pretty bleak to me.

Transformed to........

I recently had the privilege of engaging in a conversation with a very close friend.  This friend is someone that I love to talk with and at times I hate to talk with.  He is someone that is very good at listening to me and then helping me to see the depth of my words.  He loves to push back at me when I discuss feelings and concepts and situations.  He helps me to grow so much.

  During our most recent conversation I was telling him about the things going on in my life, my ministry, and the congregation that I serve with.  There were times during the conversation that he would smile.  There were times that he would nod.  There were even times when he would give me a look that told me I needed to revisit what I had just said.  He is a wonderful friend and someone that truly listens.

Then towards the end of our convesation he did it to me once again.  He threw out an idea that I have been chewing on for the last couple of days.  I cannot quote him exactly but it was along the lines of how things were changing in my life.  He indicated that he felt I was changing as a person.  Then he said something similar to this..... "Maybe the transformation in you is not that you are becoming someone different but that you are becoming the real person that you truly are."

This has really begun to resonate with me.  It has me thinking a lot about the reality of this transformation concept that I have been engaged in for the last 4 years or so.  I have been pondering this in light of Scripture.  We are told that the Lord is about realinging us with what he originally intended when we were created.  Maybe the reality of transformation is that we are not changing into someone different but we are allowing the real person we were created to be to come out. 

I am going to continuing to chew on this some more and would love to hear others' thoughts.  One thing that I know with certainty is that there is no turning back.  The person that I am becoming is so much greater than the person I have been.  I can hardly wait to see how the Lord will continue the transformation in me.

Learning About Grief

  One of the realities of change is that there is a letting go of something as you head towards what is new.  Many times when you have to let go of something, that causes some grief to occur.  Now to many of you, this all may seem painfully obvious.  I can say that it does now to me also.  However, I find that sometimes the obvious can escape me.

When we are working with churches that are in the midst of change, we must keep in mind the effect that grief can have on the individuals within the church.  Often when we encounter resistance, we can become frustrated because it appears that nothing we do will appease those causing the resistance.  We fight with ourselves because we are trying to be faithful to where we feel the Spirit is leading but there seems to be an anchor around our necks. 

Have recent experience with this in the congregation that I am leading, it took a church leader to state the obvious to me before I came to realize the problem.  The resistance that we were experiencing was caused not so much by the changes that were taking place but instead by the grief that came from the reality that the church that existed 30 years ago was not going to be the church that exists today.  We were busy trying to treat the symptoms of that grief instead of facing the grief itself. 

Now grief cannot stop us from following where the Lord is leading but it can change how we respond to the resistance we experience.  As many of you know, the most important thing to do when someone is dealing with grief is to be there to listen.  So our first step in dealing with resistance should be to listen with our hearts to what the individuals are sharing.  While listening we also have to acknowledge that they have grief associated with a letting go of the way living out our church life has been as we move toward what the Lord desires our church life to be today.  Validate their feelings as they share.

We are called to walk this journey together.  Sometimes that means walking through grief to get us to the new creation that the Lord intends.  And never underestimate the power of grief.

Keep transforming!!!!

Like A Child

This we week had an awesome week of Vacation Bible School.  Each evening we enjoyed going to a beach party and learning about the beatitudes.  Everyone seemed to have a great time, including me!  After VBS one of the evenings I was sitting at home and thinking about a variety of things that had occurred that night.  This led me to think about the way children respond to adults.  Which of course brought a Scripture passage to mind:

Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs. (Matthew 19:14b)

I thought a lot about how children respond to things.  I think Jesus clearly saw how children are without the baggage that we seem to have as adults.  We get so caught up in past hurts, current agendas, attitudes and plans that we often behave in very destructive ways.  I believe that Jesus enjoyed the welcoming and love that children seem to express in spite of anything else. 

What if we behaved more like children?  What if we let go of the baggage and the agendas?  I wonder if this isn't what Jesus was referring to when he spoke of the kingdome of heaven belonging to the children.

Question 1

I have decided that I am going to periodically post a question.  Sometimes the question will be in order to help me in creating a meaningful blog.  Sometimes the question will be to begin a dialogue.  Whatever the case, I hope that anyone who is reading my blog will give me input by commenting on the question.

Today's Question:  Do you find visual images to enhance blog entries to be meaningful and/or necessary?

Reconnecting

This week has been an awesome week of reconnecting for me.  Over the last few months I have had a struggle connecting with my purpose in life and my purpose in the Lord's plan.  I have had a period of wandering.  Most of the activities and the approaches that I am accustomed to using when I need to rekindle the connection seemed to fail me over and over.  I definitely was feeling like I was in the wilderness.

This week allowed me to turn that around.  What seemed to make the difference was my coming to a point of no longer fighting where I was in my journey and just accepting it.  I came to the point of accepting that being in the wilderness is where I was and that I needed to enjoy the wilderness for what it was.  I committed myself to live in the moment.

I would lie to you, and to myself, if I told you that I am out of the wilderness.  I think that I am actually just starting to journey toward the next step in my journey.  What tells me that I am once again in movement is that some of the things that I have loved and that has fed my spirit in the past --- reading, writing my blog, spending time in conversation with the Lord --- have begun to feed my spirit again.  Visions and ideas are starting to flow again.  I feel that I have reconnected with the Spirit of the Lord.

I am sure that the Spirit has patiently waited for me to once again connect.  I know that this is something that the Spirit does well when it comes to me.  But I must confess, it feels a lot better to be reconnected with the Spirit.  I now am ready to once again experience the joys and the challenges along the journey of transformation.  I guess I should put out some kind of warning sign at my office door:  "Watch out because I am back on the path of transformation and you don't get to keep me in the box any more!"

I hope that if you are feeling like you are in the wilderness, you might be able to just accept that is where you are at this time and place.  I believe from my own experience if that we can accept where we currently are, we will do a lot better of moving farther on the path of our journey!

A Hard Road

Sometimes when you are in a leadership position, you find yourself wondering why you decided to take the path that you take.  This has been the case for me over last few months.  A majority of the church leadership has been working over the past couple of years on a vision that we have discerned by the guiding of the Spirit.  We have often commented on how bringing the vision to life would come with some difficulties.  Along the way, those difficulties have appeared minor irritations.  All of that moved to a much higher level in the recent months.  I, and others on the leadership team, have encountered the expected (but not sought) resistence that comes with making major changes.

This has led me to often question over the last few months my self, my leadership, my discernment, my timing, the vision that the leadership has set forth, and the ability to acheive that vision.  It has cause me to question if the Lord was truly intending us to take the path or if it was ego that was driving the path.  I have come to discover that the questions that have raised in my mind and been discussed in a variety of settings are a necessary, and I would say vital, part of the whole process.  It reminds me of a refining fire mentioned in Scripture.  Through these difficult, and heated, times, I have been able with the leadership of the congregation to affirm the path that we are on and to gain a clearer perspective.

I am glad to say that I believe that I am personally coming out on the other end of a difficult experience.  While I wish I was not made to walk the path that I have walked in the last few months, I must give thanks to the Lord for the path.  I have sensed over and over the presence of the Lord beside me as I walked the path.  I have been strengthened by the prayers of those who have walked the path with me.  I have a stronger commitment to the path.  I have a more realistic underdstanding of what it will mean to be on this path.  And though I would like to say that this is over and done, I now know that the road will become hard in the future also.  However, now I believe I am better equipped to deal with the difficulties when the road becomes hard once again.

When you are in church leadership, the reality is that you will be led by the Spirit to take paths that you may not choose.  You will be taken on journeys that you do not know the complete destination.  You will be faced with challenges and you will even at times want to give up.  The reality is that the Lord has made a promise that we must never forget - "And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of time."  This is what you must cling to when you are walking that hard road.

So stay strong in the power of the Spirit!!!  And continue to walk, even when the road gets hard.

Change of scenery

We all know how valuable a change of location and routine can be.  During this time of the year it seems even more important to me.  I am preparing to go on my annual trip to the National Pastor's Conference in San Diego.  Now besides the great time that I normally have in San Diego and the awesome speakers that I get to hear, because of the winter we have had, the wonderful weather is even more inviting.  I have a friend that is preparing to head to Florida for some fun and family time. 

It doesn't really matter what you plan but when you are in the midst of transformative work, it is important to get a change of scenery on a regular basis.  It helps to rejuvenate you, increase your enthusiasm, and open your creative juices.

I will let you know what it does for me when I return from San Diego.

Stay warm and enjoy the change.

The Driver's Seat

I was involved in a recent discussion that reminded me of the importance of reviewing some of the church's principles from time to time.  The specific one that was invovled in the conversation has to do with making decisions.  We profess in many documents and settings within the church that Jesus Christ is the head of the church.  But how often do we take Christ out of the driver's seat?  How many times do we fail to recall that it is not OUR church, it is not OUR vision, it is not OUR priorities that matter?  If Jesus is truly the head of the Church, then that means Jesus generates the vision and sets the priorities.

So as we continue to go about our work.  We must be mindful that it is important to listen for the voice of Christ and to keep Jesus in the driver's seat!

Quit talking!!!

One of the very important aspects of being a Christian leader, or actually any Christian, is regular communication with the Lord.  However, that can also be very scary.  Just like conversations with other humans, you have no control over what the Lord may say back.  There may also be times that the Lord wakes you up in the middle of the night to have a convesation. 

Recently I was sharing with one of the leaders of the church that I was uncomfortable by a comment that he made.  He indicated to me that he mentioned what he did because the Lord had decided to have a conversation with him in the middle of the night.  After the two of us dialogued about what he had shared with a group, it became clear to us that the Lord was creating some tension for us to help us determine if we are still on the course that the Lord had set or if we needed a course adjustment.

I jokingly said to the leader, "Quit talking with the Lord, it can be unsettling!"  While I said the comment in a joking manner and we both laugh, there is some reality to it.  Maybe that is why individuals choose not to be in conversation with the Lord regularly.  The reality is that some of those conversations can be unsettling and make us uncomfortable.  However, if we come to realize that the Lord only seeks to benefit us, we quickly can see how being unsettled will lead us to even greater things.

So don't sto talking.  Just realize you may not always be comfortable with the course of the conversation!