The Inevitability of Change

A couple of months ago, we were nearing the end of a meeting of the church board. We had spent the meeting discussing the impending retirement of our long time pastor (about 30 years), and the issue of finding a replacement. Not surprisingly, there was a lot of uncertainly and doubt about what such a change would bring. Unlike a lot of denominational churches which often change pastors every five years or so, we have never gone through this in our small independent congregation. Since our pastor is retiring, there are many questions about what his continuing involvement should be once a someone new comes in. Many wise friends have told him that, unless he actually leaves the church, the new pastor will have a very difficult time establishing himself, since he will always be under the shadow of the old pastor, and many long time members will find it difficult to transfer their own loyalty from the old pastor to the new one. Clearly, with his personal commitment to the people in the congregation -- all his closest friends -- this would be a heart-rending experience for our pastor. As a board, we were very unified in our commitment to move forward, but it was still a very stressful time.

As we were praying at the end of this meeting, a number of points jumped out at me, and I wrote them down:

1. We tend to get wrapped up in following people and personalities. We need to focus on following CHRIST.
2. We will not be able to make a "perfect" choice.
3. In fact, there is no perfect replacement.
4. It doesn't matter, because the only perfect one is CHRIST.
5. No matter what we do, under a new pastor, the personality of the congregation will change.
6. Change is always unsettling, but it isn't always bad -- in fact, it is necessary for growth.
7. We will be surprised how resilient most people are.
8. Some people will be uncomfortable with any change and will leave.
9. Some aspects of our ministry will remain with other people in the church (e.g., the missions program) and not change much.
10. The new pastor will need room, and freedom to be himself. (This from pastor and the people who remain.)

The tendency in this kind of situation is to try to find a new pastor who duplicates, as closely as possible, the old pastor. There is some value in this -- in trying to preserve the personality and character of our congregation -- but there is also a danger of stagnation if we are simply trying to avoid change. There is also the simple fact that there is no one quite exactly like our old pastor. In fact, this is the way that Christ created each of us to be unique individuals. To deny or try to squash this individuality is to deny the power of God to work in new and different ways.