The Appearance of Change

I've spent the last few days in a leadership conference. I'll be honest, my attitude going into such conferences is usually not a positive one. The prospect of sitting in a room all day listening to an "expert" tell me the right way to do something, which will be contradicted by another "expert" at the next conference, doesn't really excite me. My grumbling begins a full week before and continues until I return home. (I know that comes as a surprise to you, given my usual sunny and positive disposition.)

But today I was truly challenged as I listened to Alan Roxburgh, author of The Missional Leader, discuss what it means to live missionally in this period of dramatic cultural change. Change has always been a part of life in this world, but most of the change we face takes place within the normal, expected paradigms. For example, we expect to get old, to move to a new home, to change jobs. Such changes are a natural part of life for churches as well. They expect pastors to come and go, the death of members, and the birth of new ones. These are all changes that we have learned to manage with our existing skills and abilities.

However, there are some changes that happen outside our expected paradigms, changes that take us beyond the skills we currently have. Something like the death of a spouse is so disruptive that it takes us to a place we have never been before, rendering our usual coping skills insufficient. In the face of such dramatic, unanticipated change, our current habits and solutions fail to address the challenge. There simply can be no return to "normal."

The world we live in is undergoing a deep and disruptive change. A shift in culture and worldview continues to take shape around us, and the church is faced with the reality that many of our traditional approaches and solutions are no longer working. Roxburgh shared that churches are responding differently to this cultural change:

• Some churches are reactive. They know the culture has changed, they don't like it, and they respond by becoming even more entrenched in what they have always done, isolating themselves from their community. Rather than confront the change, they put up a higher wall.
• Some churches are developmental. They believe that if they just develop what they already do, and do it better, they will be more effective. So, they change their music style, remodel the building, put in a coffee bar, hire some new staff, etc. The problem is, they are still doing what they did before; they are just trying to do it "better." While improving what we already do may attract more "church" people, it will do nothing to attract those who are completely disconnected from the church. If they weren't interested in what we were doing before, they probably won't care that we are now doing it differently.
• Some churches become transitional. Instead of asking how they can do the same thing, but do it better, they ask questions of a totally different nature. They begin to wrestle with questions like: How do we move out of our church and into our neighborhood? How do we begin to listen to the people in our community, so we truly learn who they are? What can we do to begin to understand the culture of this place and this time? What does it really mean to be missionaries to our own neighborhood?
• The church that humbly asks these questions has the opportunity to become a church that is transformational. These are the churches that truly enter the lives of people in their community, expressing the redeeming love of Christ. Rather than continue in their same pattern of ministry, they step out into a place they have never been before. Not hiding from the culture around them, or being consumed by that culture, they become a transforming presence in the culture. In their place and time, they sacrificially embody the love and grace of God in the midst of ordinary people.

As I thought about these different reactions, I had to confront the painful truth that much of what I did as a pastor was really developmental change. We simply changed the appearance of things; the culture and mindset underneath remained the same. Although it looked different, it did not move us outward to engage the culture around us. We did it in the name of being missional, but it did not advance the mission of God's kingdom. It made us feel good, but it did not reveal Jesus to the broken people of our neighborhood who would not think of darkening the church door.

I wonder if I am really willing to do what is necessary to become a transformational, missional kind of Christian? Am I willing to step beyond the comfortable things I do and truly move into the world around me to listen, learn, and serve? Am I willing to go to that place I have never gone before, embodying the love of Jesus in the midst of this culture? What is God really calling me to be and do in my neighborhood? What does it look like to live out the kingdom of God in my particular place and time?

I invite you to wrestle with these questions along with me.