10 May 2015
Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him.
Tesco Store, Wokingham: For the weekly shop, we like to be able to find everything in a predictable place
AFTER a General Election result that no one predicted, we have a change of government that will affect us all. Perhaps not a huge change, but a change just the same.
Businesses will generally welcome it, the pound has risen sharply against the euro and the dollar, and the FTSE 100 and 250 index ratings of share prices have surged on the basis of greater confidence. Others, perhaps dependant on benefits or working in the public sector, will see this as a more personally challenging change.
Like it or not, we all need a certain amount of change. Change grows us. Without change, we stagnate and become narrow-minded. Change forces us to consider alternatives, to adjust, to be creative and do things differently. We don't like it but we grow into it.
A trivial example is our choice of supermarket. Every week we tramp the aisles or wrestle with the online system: familiarity saves time, we know this on the list is at the end of that aisle, and we pick a lot of the same things without thinking too much. A couple of years ago, a call to another church took us to a rural area. No supermarkets for miles! The nearest decent-sized supermarket, the one we prefer, was 12 miles away. And it wasn't Waitrose, although the nearest one of those was 12 miles the other way! So we had to change, and over time grew to like an alternative (only five miles away!). As I said, a trivial example, but it made our world a bit bigger.
A pastor who mentored me in my early years of ministry had the catchphrase: "Constant change is here to stay". It wasn't always like that. The early to mid 20th century in the church week by week had a lot of predictability. The hymns didn't change much, neither did the style of message, nor did people's rather modest expectations.
Pentecostals excepted, for most of us the big time of change started to sweep through in the 1960s and 70s and 80s. Now few contemporary evangelical churches are untouched by renewal. In fact, 'contemporary' and 'renewal' occupy common ground even though they are not same thing.
The one organist went and a band of musicians came. Worship that was always led as a solo performance by the pastor was delegated a musician worship leader and perhaps another anchor person, leaving the preacher free to concentrate on the message and response. The gifts of others were increasingly relied upon. Prayer meetings became more exciting and less dutiful. The relational focus became less club-like and more missional. Services became longer until people realised that to make the church inviting to non-attenders, there needed to be a lower requirement for spiritual stamina (I'm thinking of a particular church that used to boast of "a good hour of worship before the Word" -- that took stamina.).
This is change, a turning inside out, and deeply challenging to some. It is also what gets us thinkling about being disciples, not just believers, and therefore engaged in a lifelong process of learning – and growing spiritually. The process of sanctification which Paul writes about becomes meaningful – we're all at different stages on that journey.
• We need to embrace change. Change brings its own challenge but it brings growth growth.