Change is always a tricky subject for a church and yet nearly every church I have ever encountered has a dream about how things ought to be. Most churches say they want more members. Nearly all would like to see more of the clergy person. Many say they would like better preaching or better worship. Nearly all say that they would like to make a positive impact on their communities. However nearly all of them also don’t want any change (even if they won’t admit this to themselves).
Yes they want more people, especially more young people, but they want all the new people to fit in with them.
Yes they want better worship but usually of a kind that fits in with their own idea of proper worship.
Etc.
I think I’m probably coming across as a little mean here and I don’t mean to be. I’m not bashing churches who think this way they are just being people and you find the same thing in all organisations.
However, the truth is that if you want something to be different then something, somewhere has to change. If you continue doing the same things then you will get the same results. So if a church continues to put on its round of social events and outreach events etc then that church can expect to get the same results. If we want a different result then we have to try something different, even if that is going to make us uncomfortable.
Same applies to a Christian life of course. If we want a deeper relationship with God then we have to change something to make that difference, we can’t expect to get deeper with God just doing the same things we are already doing.
Perhaps the first change to make is in the way we think. We need first to think that we need to do something different.