The Confidence of Change

About a year ago I had the privilege of spending time with a man who had a very long, studied and successful career as a senior partner with one of the most successful accounting practices in US history. We sat in his backyard on a Autumn morning that made you grateful to live in a world where there are Autumns. There is something innately nostalgic about the annual cascade of autumn leaves.

We talked about many things, including his career. I remarked that he must have seen a great deal of change, and he smiled. He had been responsible for leading corporate strategy, and he recalled a time when the firm was doing well and his partners were divided about the future. Some looked to the future, eager to meet new challenges, while others said that their preferred future was about professionally servicing the status quo with excellence. He spent many hours looking not just within the market place but also to history, nature and science. He produced a report that brought the strongest recommendation. The world changes every second, and like autumn foliage, it blows new opportunities in all directions. The art of a life well lived is the ability to readjust to our surroundings and those opportunities. History repeatedly revealed that the cost of doing the same thing over and over again is far greater than the cost of change. Ecology showed how, in the words of Charles Darwin, “It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.” His partners agreed, and the firm went on to scale new heights of success while at the same time raising the bar of excellence in customer care. 

Someone once said that uttering the word “change” in the church is the equivalent of yelling “Shark!” at the beach! I recall that at the church I first attended, after a few months of my showing up, they changed the time of the evening service and planted a new church. I was horrified. I had found something so wonderful that I wanted to preserve my lived experience of it. This same church has now reproduced itself many times over and has a vast array of service times in church plants all over London and the UK. I am glad that they did not ask or heed my opinion in that early season of my following Jesus. 

Nevertheless, change can be really hard. Rosabeth Moss Kanter wrote, “Change is disturbing when it is done to us, exhilarating when it is done by us.” Even the godliest people naturally attach to beloved traditions and customs, and find it painful to say goodbye to them. We hate to lose those things where we find our identity. We fear the uncertainty of the unknown. We wonder whether and where we will fit in the new order. But to follow Jesus is to surrender to change both personally and as a family of believers. John Henry Newman wrote, “To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.” The Christian life is never static. This is an important concept as we co-operate with God in His process of sanctification in our lives. Within each of us exists the image of God and beneath the layers of sin and pain that has dinted and scraped our souls, Jesus is able to restore this image, and through the grace of change we are conformed to His image. Paul wrote, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” [Romans 12:2]. 

Ecclesiastes reminds us that we can to expect to experience change in our life in God, “For everything there is a season. A time to keep and a time to cast away.” [Ecclesiastes 3:1-8]. And perhaps most profoundly, Jesus primed us to anticipate change in the increase of His Kingdom through the advance of His church. He promised us, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” [Matthew 16:18]. This is not a picture of the church in a bunker, with its hands metaphorically covering its head, fending off the attacks of the enemy. This is His church on the advance. This is a picture of His Kingdom of light prevailing over the kingdom of darkness.  

One of the most outstanding Biblical leaders is Joshua. And in a very strategic period of change for God’s people, as they crossed the river Jordan to enter the promised land we are told, “And all Israel was passing over on dry ground until all the nation finished passing over the Jordan.” [Joshua 3:14-17]; all generations from the youngest to the eldest made it, nobody got left behind. Kingdom change is about being honest that we don’t have all the answers but together in prayer and in prayerful deliberation and discussion we will find our way across our own rivers. Kingdom change seeks Godly counsel. It affirms and cherishes relationship, showing a genuine concern and respect for others. Kingdom change learns to move with the Holy Spirit. It is flexible, able to accommodate and modify its speed and direction upon the wise and Godly counsel of others. Of paramount importance, Kingdom change will always seek to glorify God. Paul wrote, “Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” (1 Corinthians 10:31) 

As my new friend and I headed back to the house, the most exquisite monarch butterfly followed us across the yard. My host explained that his neighbor raised butterflies in her glass house. It struck me that this was the perfect metaphor to end our conversation on the necessity and virtue of change. We can learn a lot from the butterfly. It begins its life crawling and devouring everything in its sight that is green. Spun into a cocoon, it must surely have to overcome claustrophobia as it patiently waits for the day when it struggles to exit what were only temporary paper walls. It is exactly in that struggle that the butterfly grows both in strength and beauty until, on a perfect Autumn morning, it’s ready to spread its wings and fly.