Moving On
1. Complacency
2. The Ever-Changing Church
3. The Future
It would be naïve to say that all change in a community is smooth and effortless.
It may happen sooner or later. Stay at a church long enough and we notice that it is not the same church five years later. But to be fair, if all stayed the same, something might be wrong. Growth in membership, new ministry opportunities, and mission support, etc., is desirable. But it would be naïve to say that all change in a community is smooth and effortless.
Childhood friends may come and go. Newcomers may come and stay. Church buildings may move. A community may have to adjust to different pastors, counselors, or leadership. A church may become two churches and members may have to make difficult choices.
Our response to change, regardless of the reasons or purpose, usually boils down to a simple choice, most famously stated by The Clash: Should I stay or should I go?
I’m sure some of us have experienced this before. When we ask someone about their spiritual life, and they respond with, “it’s going okay, I guess, about the same,” what’s our standard assumption? We think their faith must be slipping. It’s a common saying in the Christian world that if a spiritual life isn’t growing, it’s falling. There is no middle ground. I’ve had many conversations where I’ve given this same response and received it, and in retrospect, I was (or they were) correct.
This also applies to churches as a whole. Regardless of whether a stable church is maintaining its stability or a small church is resigned to being a small ministry, both are in dangerous spiritual waters, and this mentality can creep up on us faster than we expect.
A feeling of complacency isn’t just dangerous on a theological level, but on a social level as well. We may not even notice it because we tend not to talk about these issues in public.
Except maybe when certain servants of the church who were previously in a relationship break up and social awkwardness ensues. Maybe it’s when we are adjusting to a new pastor. Maybe we have unresolved issues with certain people and we bottle our feelings within where it slowly festers unnoticed until it forces us to take drastic action. Most issues are never the blazingly obvious ones, but the ones that go unnoticed and unmentioned.
Let’s examine my favorite example — The Returning Collegiate. A child grows up his entire life at a church, making some of his best friends there. He serves with the worship team and on his high school core team. He then leaves for college, returning sporadically to say hi, and slowly noticing small changes but passing them off as miniscule.
He finally graduates and comes back to his home church full time, only to realize that it’s not the same church he had left. His old friends are gone, and in their places are a sea of new faces — new members that have shared memories and experiences together. He’s now a newcomer in his home church and reaches the sad realization that the church had moved on without him. Suddenly, he’s left without a (spiritual) home.
I’m certain I am not the only one who has seen or experienced this. Some people stop attending services regularly or start looking for another church. Others stop attending altogether. It can even reach a tipping point where so many spiritual lives are affected that attendance dwindles and members start asking themselves if they should stay at a church that cannot maintain attendance.
These may be shallow concerns — and sometimes they are — but sadly, they’re very real situations that happen too often because a few small changes grew into big ones. Many of us don’t respond well to change in our ever-changing world. So what’s a brother or sister in Christ to do?
We’ve forgotten this: our anchor ultimately isn’t in the building, the relationships, or even the people, but in Christ alone.
From a historical perspective, the church has always been in a state of change, and not just small staffing changes, but big gaping theological changes as well.
One of my favorite characters in the Bible is Paul. Among many reasons is the fact that Paul was a huge harbinger of change to the newfound Christian world. He traveled around welcoming Gentiles into the kingdom of God. He threw out the need for circumcision. He debated with some of the smartest and most well-versed minds in Rome, the de facto center of the world in his time.
But more than that, Paul’s life was in a state of constant change. His life was a journey: establishing churches, growing ministries, developing new brothers in Christ, and being thrown into prison. It was filled with change and situational uncertainty. But he had certainty in Christ alone — who was his constant, unchanging pillar of support.
We’ve forgotten this: our anchor ultimately isn’t in the building, the relationships, or even the people, but in Christ alone.
And if we in the church share this perspective, regardless of our ever-changing situation, I believe we can still work together towards the kingdom as one church. We may not be BFFs, nor do we have to be. But the kingdom must still be built, and the workers don’t work for each other, but for the King.
And what if we can’t deal with the changes in our communities? We’ll always be faced with a decision to stay and tough it out, or leave. I believe that in the end, wherever we go, God can be in our decision regardless of the outcome.
However, it’s important to realize that this question isn’t about moving on to different churches. It’s about the ability to cope with change and whether those changes inspire us to stay or leave.
Regardless of where we end up, we are guaranteed that God’s kingdom will always be changing and expanding. So it’s just a matter of time before that change hits us, wherever we are. And guess what? It’s not such a bad thing.
Some advice to those who have been in or are dealing with changes in church, drastic or small: don’t be scared or yearn for seasons past. Instead, be a part of it if possible. Take hold and participate in the ever-changing church — mold it and make it personal. Change will always come in life, in the church, and in the world. What will make the difference is whether we decide to partake in it or not.
In the end, I think we can take some wisdom from one of the greatest rappers of all time, Tupac Shakur — though probably never quoted in Christian literature. While his struggle may have been directed towards issues of racial equality and social justice, I believe his words here are still applicable:
“We gotta start making changes —
Learn to see me as a brother instead of two distant strangers.
And that’s how it’s supposed to be
How can the Devil take a brother if he’s close to me?
I’d love to go back to when we played as kids
but things changed … and that’s the way it is.”
— Tupac Shakur — “Changes”
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