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CHANGE

That word can bing delight or terror to us. But one thing is sure, it will always happen. Nothing is stagnet. We may have worked at the same job for a number of years, but our surroundings, co-workers, and ways of completing our assignments have invariably changed. Our church may have plataeued at 20/50/100 members, but they probably aren't the same people involved in the same programs as a year ago.

There are times in our personal lives and the lives of our churches that we not only need, but also desire, to institute change. So how do we achieve that transformation? Dr. John C. Maxwell, noted church development and leadership authority, outlines six steps toward that goal.

1) When you change your thinking, you change your beliefs.
2) When you change your beliefs, you change your expectations.
3) When you change your expectations, you change your attitude.
4) When you change your attitude, you change your behavior.
5) When you change your behavior, you change your performance,
6) When you change your performance, you change your life.

To often we sit and wait for God or other people to make the changes just happen in us, We aren't intentional about doing our part in making our dream of things being different a reality. Sometimes we focus on being people-pleasers instead of God pleasers. Or we care more about taking the easy route, rather than overcoming the obstacales in our path. Perhaps we look at changing our appearance instead of our attitudes, or our talking instaed of our thinking.

We avoid taking the time to do serious introspection about the changes we should make in our personal lives. When something obvious pops into mind, we often procrastinate, saying we'll get to that later or after we've done something else first. Sometimes we go as far as to stay in unhealthy relationships just because we know what to expect. And at times, we fear the unknown, so we refuse to implement changes that would truly enhance our lives.

In our churches we can also be guilty of trying to maintain the staus quo because it's comfortable. We avoid taking risks, just because something might fail. We hesitate to train new leaders, establish new groups, or turn over responsibilities to others who could take away some of our control. And after all, no one else could possibly do it as well!!! We might not know every detail of everything that is happening!!! Well, the ministry may be done a little bit differently, but it just might reach others we haven't been able to touch.

Do we want to change something in our personal lives or in our church? If so, let's commit to following the steps outlined above and make those dreams a realities.