I hate change!

We all hate changes that we don't instigate.  I am a HUGE fan of changes that I decide to make.  Sometimes I wonder why everyone else isn't.  I sometimes even think that I am just the kind of person who loves change.  Then someone changes something and I hate it.  It makes me mad.  I doubt why that person should even be able to make that sort of change.  "How dare that restaurant decide to change their menu!  I eat here at least twice a year.  Why didn't they consult me?"

I think we all hate change.  Change is really hard.  We get comfortable when we know what's happening.  We like the rhythms that we live in.  We don't enjoy people messing it up.

Unless we believe that the change that is made will lead to a greater place.

I had lunch with an 80 year old guy that has been a part of our church for as long as I've been alive (36 years).  You could say that he has a heart of gold but the look of a curmudgeon.  He is a very giving person and yet can come across a little demanding.

He taught me two incredible things about change.

#1 - Sometimes you have to make a change that make EVERYONE mad.

Before I started working at Westside the leadership made a crazy decision to take their traditional service (piano) and move it from the prime spot at 10:45am and to the less prime spot at 9:00am.  It was a swap.  The contemporary service went from 9am to 10:45am.  The tradition than had to go from 10:45am to 9:00am.  This made most of the 10:45 traditional service very unhappy.  Several people left the church and this man that I ate with said that he was very, very upset about the change.  Over the course of a few years the contemporary service has grown by leaps and bounds partly because it was given the prime spot.  He said, today, that he was very happy for the growth caused by that decision and he recognized that it needed to happen.

#2 - Other times you have to make a change that make everyone REALLY mad.

Several years ago churches would have 3 weekly services.  You would have worship and a sermon on Sunday morning, again on Sunday night, and then again on Wednesday night.  That's what worked back then and what people loved.  A shift took place and the leadership of Westside decided to cancel the Sunday night and Wednesday night and put in place small groups or home bible studies.  He said he got so upset with that decision that he wrote letters to the elders to tell them how wrong they were.  But then he told me that he had never really learned so much about the Bible and faith until he joined one of these home bible studies.  He said that he had always just listened to someone talk, but things become clearer to him as he had discussion in people's homes.

Yes, it's very hard to change things.  The people that are affected by the change hate it.

But, can I let you in on something else?  The people who are making the big changes are pretty uncomfortable too.  We don't know if the changes will work.  We are afraid that our decisions will end up being wrong and just end up hurting people.  We, seldom, make changes happily.  We know that the changes we make affect many people and we carry that burned heavily.  

However, we recognize that most of the time change has to happen in order for us to get to that greater place.