Change & Transition – Part 3

Transition starts with an end, and ends with a beginning.

Transition (changing our mindset to match new situations) determines if we can survive through change. Today I want to talk about the three phases of transition; it starts with an ending and ends with a new beginning.

Phase one: Letting go of the old way of doing things.

This is never easy. In Joshua 1, Moses is dead. God speaks to Joshua as he is the new leader and says, "I know you know Moses is dead, but I need you to accept it". After 40 years of following Moses' leadership, Joshua and the Israelites face a new situation. It starts with a loss.

Phase two: The Neutral Zone.

This stage falls between the old and the new, suspended somewhere between what was and what will be. It is an emotional wilderness filled with uncertainty, friction and confusion and it's when many jump ship. Back in the desert, when Moses was up a mountain for 40 days, the people he led were freaking out; “Where is Moses? Is he dead? Is he coming back?” In their uncertainty, they jumped ship and abandoned Moses and God to build and worship a golden calf. This shows when people lose the things that secure them; people will follow anyone rather than feel lost. We need to keep our head so we don't end up with an identity crisis.

Phase three: New beginnings.

At the end of the transition we welcome a new season, new identity and new energy.

My advice is…

Stand firm.

Your future depends on standing strong through change and transition; your future is what it is all about. It’s a time of incredible opportunity. When I was working through the changes of growing from a small to a big church, there were times when thought I had lost my mind and wanted to throw my hands up and say 'That's it, I'm done!’ But I had and held on to the knowledge that this wasn't the end, something was changing in my thinking and keeping my eyes on where we were going.

Be patient.

Transition takes time. You can't rush it. Just ask any mum; it takes nine months to make a baby. You can't force some things.

Understand consequences of not changing.

If we don’t change we will die. If a receptionist with a rude phone manner - and we've all experienced someone like that - does not change, they will be fired. Where might you end up if you don't stand firm, be patient and transition through periods of change in your life?

Change & Transition – Pt 2

In my last post, we looked at change being an essential part of life. We have to embrace change to stay relevant with our unchanging message and mandate. Today we continue looking at important facts about change...

2.  Change is always personal.

Even when you change something inanimate like a system, structure or technology, people are still involved. Because the changes affect us as people, we get upset. A good example can be found in the book of Exodus; the Israelites have just had all their prayers answered and are on their way to leaving an era of abuse behind. They are heading into freedom and a land flowing with milk and honey, but just three days into the journey, they are complaining. They would rather go back to a life in captivity because they can’t cope with the change.

3.  Change is situational, transition is psychological

It is not the change that is the problem, it is how we transition. That simply means adjusting your thinking to match a new situation. If you don’t make a mental shift after change arises, change will not happen. Change without transition makes life miserable and unhappy.

For example, a couple get married, but they still live like single people. They haven't made the transition from being single to being married, even though they have the papers to prove it. What might happen if they don't adjust their mindset and behaviours to match their change in lifestyle?

Transition can be painful because it often involves loss. But it is the losses, not really the change, that people react to. Our married couple above start a family and must find a bigger house. Moving into a new home itself is not the painful part, but rather it is the loss of their old home and the memories inside.

To be continued ….

Change and Transition

On the 27th Feb this year, Victory Church celebrated its 17th birthday. This was cause for great celebration and reflection. Among the many memories I have over the years, the thing that stands out the most is the amount of change that has occurred during this time.
As wonderful and necessary as the changes have been, they were seldom embraced with the greatest deal of enthusiasm. Lets face it, change is never easy! There's only one thing people hate more than change and that is rapid change. Whether we like it or not change is here to stay and we must accept this fact.

Some important facts about change are as follows...

1. Change is the requirement for existence.
The continuation of any organization depends on change. The whole idea of change is to preserve that which does not change. For example - The mandate of the church has not changed - Go into all the world and make disciples of Christ. (Mat.28:19). Yet the world in which we live is a vastly different place to when those words were first spoken. We, the church have had to change our approach, language, style, etc. to preserve the unchanging mandate to disciple the nations. We must resist the temptation of the church becoming a museum to the former things at the expense of our future.
For this reason I believe that we must embrace all forms of technology in order to communicate the unchanging message of the church. This is not a matter of personal preference, it is a requirement! The more we stand still and resist change the more people go to hell.

To be continued ...

God is doing more behind our backs than in front of our face 

Last week I was asked if someone from our church would follow up a family in our community that was very much in need. Saying 'yes' to a request like that is a lot easier than making the first call. What do I say? What will they think? How will they respond? That moment before the first call is a mental and emotional roller-coaster.

Having wrestled with all these thoughts and finding the courage to make the call, something became very clear, very quickly...God was already at work in her life preparing her heart for the conversation she was about to have. By way of example, their youngest child was receiving hospital care by a doctor who is a member of our church. To top this off, on the day the call was made she had just had a conversation with someone who had just visited our church for the first time on the previous Sunday and had encouraged her to come with them for a visit. Coincidence? I think not! Even the young woman on the other end of the phone concluded with the statement..."I think God might be trying to tell me something."

What a joy it was, come Sunday, to meet this young woman face to face, to hear her story and to see God opening her eyes to a whole new world.

It is early days of course and their are many challenges to be faced, but my hope and confidence is in The One who is working behind the scenes.

If you are a lot like me and wonder where God is at times, be encouraged with the thought that God is doing more behind our backs than in front of our faces.