CHANGE IS CHALLENGING

 Acts 15:1-2

Some men came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers: "Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved." This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question.

                We all find change challenging. Change disrupts our normal routine. It disorients us by altering the established patterns in our life. Whether we resist change or embrace change, it always comes with some uncomfortable aspects. Letting go of the familiar is painful. Embracing the unfamiliar can be unsettling and difficult. The old phrase, “Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t”, comes into play. Most of us are hesitant to give up the comfortable and the familiar. This is nothing new.

                In the early days of the Church, the issue of significant change raised its head. All of the first believers in Christ were Jews. They were steeped in the laws and traditions of Judaism. They assumed that moving forward all of the established rules would still apply. Then something unexpected happened; Gentiles started becoming followers of Jesus. The Church was faced with the challenge of deciding how these non-Jews could be incorporated into the fellowship. The easy answer (for the Jewish believers) was for these Gentiles to become Jews. That did not sit very well with the Gentiles and with Paul and Barnabas, who were spearheading this new missionary movement. This conflict forced the Church to rethink their approach. In the end they chose significant change over hanging onto the old ways.

                Throughout the history of the church, we have struggled with this issue time and again. Historically, many missionaries assumed that when a person from another culture became a Christian, they would adopt Western ways. When people like Hudson Taylor embraced Chinese culture in order to reach the Chinese people for Christ, he faced stiff resistance. This resistance to change continues to this very day.

                Every church today has had to struggle with the challenges of change. Should we hang onto traditional hymns or embrace the new choruses? Should we insist that people dress up to come to church or can they come in jeans and t-shirts? Should we limit the use of food in church to scheduled meal events or can we offer coffee and donuts between services every Sunday? Should we hold onto the pews that have been in our building for 100 years or opt to replace them with padded chairs? These questions may sound trivial, but they have caused quite a stir within the Church. Bottomline, we tend to hang onto what we know and are comfortable with over what is new and uncomfortable, at least at first.

                We are living in a time of unprecedented change in our society and within the church. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused great disturbance within the Church. We have divided over masks, vaccines, social distancing, meeting in-person or meeting on-line. All of these things have distracted with the purpose of the Church; to bring people to faith in Jesus Christ.

                We need to realize that change is inevitable. If we are going to be able to reach this generation and the next, we will have to adapt the way we do things. Our message must remain consistent and the same, but our methods must always be changing. If we refuse to change and adapt, we will effectively marginalize ourselves and become ineffective in reaching our world for Christ.

                All of us need to take a lesson from the missionaries that we send out to other countries. Before they can effectively reach the people to whom they have been sent, they have to learn their language and culture. They cannot expect those people to adapt to the culture from which the missionary is coming. Instead, the missionary needs to adjust their approach and methods to be relevant to the culture in which they have been transplanted. We, in the Church in America, need to learn to be students of the culture around us. Without compromising the Gospel, we need to adapt our language and our methods.

                Change is always challenging and often uncomfortable. But change is a necessary part of life. Without change, we become stagnant and ineffective. The Church cannot use Morse Code to communicate the message of the Gospel when the world around us is zipping along at light speed on the internet.

                When Jesus came into the world, He brought significant change. He redefined the old traditions and instituted new ways of living. He literally turned the world upside down. Change is challenging, but it is the path that Jesus took. Shouldn’t we follow His lead?

1 Corinthians 9:19-23

Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.