I very frequently talk about change, and how change is our only constant in life. It’s something I still firmly believe, but there are different kinds of change. I’m speaking, of course, of intentional change, the kinds of things we need to shift into something else.
The two kinds I most often talk about are technical changes and adaptive changes. Technical changes are the easy ones to find. They’re the to-do lists, the tasks we want to accomplish. They can be useful when we’re trying to make adaptive changes, but they aren’t adaptive changes themselves.
We as a church are working on these adaptive changes. It’s something that takes a lot of time and intentional work, something where it’s often hard to see the progress that we’re making. But we are making progress, and we are changing our culture.
Things like this U & I 4 U. S. I. campaign are tasks that we’re doing to change our culture, to bring out that giving legacy we have been so blessed with. Things like doing deep dives into studies that are hard and challenge us and cause us to rethink and evaluate where we are in our faith journey as individuals and as a church.
We are church that is looking to move forward into the next 100 years of our ministry together and in Cheyenne, and that requires constant change and transformation. Transition is the key to these changes, and transition isn’t easy. It’s often like stepping into a canoe. It rocks when we get in, and we feel unbalanced. It doesn’t feel good or easy.
But eventually, through time, the canoe will even out, we’ll find a balance, and we’ll be ready to paddle, only to be rocked by the waves and movement again. This is our constant. God is with us throughout the waters, throughout the weather, throughout the transitions we make as we work toward changes in our congregation.
“Transitions take time. They involve reflection and intentionality. Transitions are the psychological, emotional, and spiritual adjustment to the changes (the events) we have experienced” (Like Stepping Into a Canoe).
Let’s all take that time together.