By Benton Heisler, West Michigan Conference Director of Connectional Ministries
In 2008 we had no Christmas tree or festive decorations since we were in the midst of a move on Dec. 19.
In 2009 we had to determine where it would go since we were now in a different parsonage.
Now, in 2010 it was placed downstairs in the family room instead of “where it’s always been” (one year, ha!) in the living room.
My point?
Lots of change.
Not to mention graduations, weddings, surgeries, a new phone contract, the IRS Tax Code, all those cables down the center of the expressway, the Spartans as Big Ten football co-champs…get the point?
The changes just keep going on and on…
Seriously, I believe that as Christians, change is simply the healthy characteristic God inspires in us and expects of us. The Scriptures are full of images and stories of changed hearts, changed lives, new futures and ultimately our Eternal Life as a transformation of our human death.
We can choose to be nostalgic about “how it used to be,” but that eventually leaves us in denial of the current reality facing us.
In his book, Good to Great Jim Collins points to the importance of the “brutal facts” that need to be faced in order for healthy change to move forward.
Others may describe it as the importance of “selling the problem” and therefore setting up the possibility to be able to cast a vision for the solution. The three-year-old that constantly asks “Why?” actually gets it.
Too often when a new idea has failed to move forward, one key reason has been the failure of those initiating the change.
They have likely been insufficient or unconvincing in their rationale for what is leading to this transition.
In the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy, after being carried to a new time and place, speaks the “brutal facts” to her faithful canine companion in the often quoted phrase: “Toto, I don’t believe we are in Kansas anymore.”
In 2008 we had no Christmas tree or festive decorations since we were in the midst of a move on Dec. 19.
In 2009 we had to determine where it would go since we were now in a different parsonage.
Now, in 2010 it was placed downstairs in the family room instead of “where it’s always been” (one year, ha!) in the living room.
My point?
Lots of change.
Not to mention graduations, weddings, surgeries, a new phone contract, the IRS Tax Code, all those cables down the center of the expressway, the Spartans as Big Ten football co-champs…get the point?
The changes just keep going on and on…
Seriously, I believe that as Christians, change is simply the healthy characteristic God inspires in us and expects of us. The Scriptures are full of images and stories of changed hearts, changed lives, new futures and ultimately our Eternal Life as a transformation of our human death.
We can choose to be nostalgic about “how it used to be,” but that eventually leaves us in denial of the current reality facing us.
In his book, Good to Great Jim Collins points to the importance of the “brutal facts” that need to be faced in order for healthy change to move forward.
Others may describe it as the importance of “selling the problem” and therefore setting up the possibility to be able to cast a vision for the solution. The three-year-old that constantly asks “Why?” actually gets it.
Too often when a new idea has failed to move forward, one key reason has been the failure of those initiating the change.
They have likely been insufficient or unconvincing in their rationale for what is leading to this transition.
In the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy, after being carried to a new time and place, speaks the “brutal facts” to her faithful canine companion in the often quoted phrase: “Toto, I don’t believe we are in Kansas anymore.”
