Theology Of Change, Part 1

The Theology of Change

A message from the 2004 Sherwood Baptist Church Pastor's Conference

You'll excuse me for sitting down, but you're doing it, so there's no reason why I shouldn't. And half of what I was born with doesn't work anymore, and the other half hurts, so I'm going to sit down if you don't mind.

The Problem: Open Doors and Closed Minds

The history of progress in this world is the sad story of the conflict between open doors and closed minds. And this is especially true of the Church.

If you take science, just read the history of science, and notice how minds were closed against the truth. They told the Wright brothers they were crazy because you couldn't fly a heavier-than-air machine. Guess what? They did it. They told Lister and Pasteur that their ideas about germs were crazy. Turned out that they were right.

Now this came from the scientific world, not from the lay world. Galileo tells us that the earth is not the center of our universe, the sun is. And the Church didn't want to accept it, and science so-called did not want to accept it.

The Battle in Communications

This conflict is true in the area of communications. We've gone from an oral society to a writing society, to a printing society, to a transmitting society—radio, television, movies, and all the other equipment that we have.

And all along it was a battle. You will not believe this, but I speak the truth. When they were moving from an oral society to a written society, people were saying, "This will destroy people's memories. If they can write things down, why remember?" Well, we write things down now so we can remember, I suppose.

When printing came along, you won't believe this, but people said "Printing will never replace handwritten books. People want the best." And today, if you have a handwritten book, you've got a treasure, but you can't use it very much.

So printing replaced handwritten manuscripts, and then printing was challenged by radio. They said, "Radio is going to put the printing press out of business." Have you ever tried to find a parking place at a Barnes & Noble store? We have two of them in Lincoln, Nebraska. Those parking lots are full.

Movies came along. They said, "Well, there will be no more radio because now we have movies." Radio is still here making noise. Television came along and said, that's the end of movies. Movies are still here. Television is still here.

Computer came along. I remember seeing an article in some magazine years ago that said we are soon going to have paper-free offices. How many of you have computers? How many of you have paper-free offices?

So you see, all down the pike, it's been the same story. The experts tell us this is what's going to happen, and lo and behold, it doesn't happen.

Thomas Jefferson on Constitutions

This is true in government, especially true. In the early days of the American Republic, I happened to run across a letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote about the Constitution. Now here's the man who's the father of the Declaration of Independence, who is the father of the Bill of Rights, and here's what he had to say. If you have problems with people in your church with Constitutions—many churches do; they don't carry a Bible, they carry a Constitution—show them this.

Jefferson was writing to a friend of his who asked some questions about the revision of the Virginia Constitution:

"Some men look at Constitutions with sanctimonious reverence and deem them like the Ark of the Covenant too sacred to be touched. They ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment. I am certainly not an advocate for the frequent and untried changes in laws and Constitution. I think moderate imperfections had better be borne with because when once known we accommodate ourselves to them and find practical means of correcting their ill effects. But I know also that laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind."

Now that's a great statement. It ought to be printed and put up above the baptistry. Institutions must advance also and keep pace with the time.

Historical Resistance to God's Work

When William Carey appealed for missionaries to go win a lost world, a saintly man stood up and said, "Young man, sit down. When God wants to win the heathen, He'll do it without your help." And I would have read to him from Romans, "How shall they hear without a preacher?" God does need our help.

I've had people stop me and say, "Now look, you're talking about change. What are you going to do with Malachi 3:6, 'I am the Lord I change not'?" I don't advocate anybody try to change the Lord. And I know the Lord doesn't change, but the Lord changes his ways of working. Otherwise you haven't read your Bible if you don't believe that.

Or they say, "What about Jeremiah 6:16, 'Seek for the old paths...'?" How old? And back in Jeremiah's day they had left the old path.

So this morning and this afternoon, we talk about change. We're not talking about undermining either the character of God, or the word of God, or the basic foundations of Christian living in the church. No, those things never change.

We bake our bread differently today. You got a bread machine, you dump it all in there and plug it in and go play golf. But it's still bread. The fundamentals really don't change.

I wish that we would all get back to the slogan we had in Youth for Christ centuries ago. Our slogan in Youth for Christ 55 years ago was: geared to the times, anchored to the rock. And I recommend that for every church.

Now if you're anchored to the rock but not geared to the times, you're not accomplishing anything. And if all you are is geared to the times, you've abandoned your ministry. So progress has always had to fight against closed minds when God gives open doors.

Why Does Change Create So Much Trouble?

1. We Don't Teach the Biblical Approach to Change

Why is it in churches today you make any kind of change—particularly in the area of worship—and people leave? Well, part of the problem is my fault, maybe your fault: we don't teach our people the biblical approach to change.

We ourselves don't take the biblical approach to change. We approach change cosmetically but not theologically. I once preached for a friend of mine in Oklahoma. He said, "Now we have two services: first service is traditional, second service is contemporary." I said, "What's the difference?" Well he said, "In between services I change clothes. I put on blue jeans and a sweatshirt."

That's change? No it's not. That's just a cosmetic change. Same message. If you're going to preach to a contemporary crowd and it's the same message you used for the older crowd, they may not have understood it.

Just changing your shirt and your trousers doesn't make it a different thing altogether. Change creates trouble for us because we don't approach it biblically, we don't teach our people what God says about change—because this book is change from start to finish.

When we understand how God does it, you know what it does for you? It just takes away that fear, takes away that tension. When you're talking to somebody about how to be saved, you know what you're talking about because you've got a book that tells you this is how you're saved. Talk to somebody about a church problem, here's what the word of God says. Talk to somebody about change, you've got the word of God behind you.

2. We Are Not Growing Ourselves

There's a third reason why change causes so much trouble: not only because we don't approach it biblically and we don't teach people God's way of change, but we ourselves are not growing and therefore we are resisting change.

Let me tell you what my wife and I have been doing. We're not out on the road very much and we're getting more involved in our local church. We're getting involved with our college students. I have breakfast with them (of course they let me pay, but that's alright). I have breakfast with some of them, we talk about things, and I've noticed that they help me catch up on the present and I help them catch up on the past—because it takes both to be balanced.

They'll call me up and say, "Who is this man Spurgeon?" Well, he was a great British preacher. "Are his books available?" Every sermon, 65 volumes. You want them? You can buy them. "Who was this fellow George Morrison or who was Henry Martyn?" Nobody educates them, and so I'm helping them catch up on the past and they're helping me catch up on the present.

I want to grow myself. I don't want to be an old curmudgeon who has a knee-jerk reaction against anything new. I want to think it through. I want to see what the word says. If the word doesn't authorize it, I don't care how popular it is, I'm not interested.

I've been in some services in some places where I felt as we were singing I felt like turning to my wife and saying "patty cake, patty cake, baker"—it was so absolutely juvenile and shallow. Because just because there's a crowd there doesn't mean a thing. There's a big difference between building a crowd and building a church.

Now it's nice to have a crowd. Spurgeon used to say those who criticize statistics usually have none to report, and he may have been right. But I find personally I have to deal with this whole matter of change.

Living in Colliding Ages

You and I are living and ministering at a time in history when the ages are colliding. The ages are colliding, and the new has not yet been born and the old has not yet been buried, and it's a difficult time to serve.

I can recall the 50s—some of you were here, some of you weren't. The 50s were very quiet, very sleepy. Eisenhower was in the White House when he wasn't playing golf, and it was just a quiet time. Then along came the 60s and everything exploded. Then along came the 70s when they started to calm down just a little bit. And then we had wars and wars and wars.

Let me recommend occasionally some secular books to you. If you're not acquainted with Eric Hoffer (H-O-F-F-E-R), get acquainted with him. He was not a professor, thank God for that. He was not any kind of an erudite specialist. He was a longshoreman in San Francisco. He loaded cargo on ships, but by night he read omnivorously—read, thought—and he's written some marvelous books. The Ordeal of Change is one of them. The True Believer is another. He'll make you think.

Let me read a quotation from The Ordeal of Change. Actually, my first quotation is from his book First Things, Last Things:

"The vanishing of the present is hard on grown-ups. It devalues their experience, skills and convictions and reduces them to the level of adolescence. The young become arrogant in an age of not knowing when the old are no longer sure of themselves, and growing up becomes meaningless."

From The Ordeal of Change:

"Every radical adjustment is a crisis in self-esteem. We undergo a test, we have to prove ourselves, and of course this leads to fear and anger. In times of change, learners inherit the earth while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists."

Now some of you are too young to worry about this. Some of us who are older have faced this. I've been through this where you stand before a seminary class—here are people 25, 26 years old—and you're struggling to figure out how to turn on your computer and they have known from the cradle how that thing not only turns on but how it works.

When I graduated from seminary in the early 50s, counseling had not really hit the church yet. It was coming, we could see it coming. It started about in the 20s, but the liberal people grabbed it first. Evangelicals didn't want it. We had one course in counseling. It lasted maybe two weeks in seminary. And then whop! You're suddenly hit with all of this. I had to do a lot of studying. I had to pick up books. What is this all about?

Now you go to seminary, you get some basic courses in counseling. You can even get a degree in it if you want to. This is true of so many other areas.

You and I have to be very careful as we face this matter of change that we ourselves are growing. I'm sure you heard about the preacher who said he had 20 years experience in the ministry when actually he had two years experience ten times. He was not growing.

I read more secular books now than I read sacred books except for the Bible, because I want to find out what this world is saying about things—not that I want the wisdom of this world, but everything I read just goes right through the grid of this book. Sometimes they hit the nail on the head and sometimes they don't even know where the nail is.

The Difference Between Change and Novelty

Change is causing trouble because sometimes those of us who are in leadership are not growing as we should, and sometimes we settle for substitutes. There's a difference between change and novelty. Change for the sake of change is novelty. Changing my shirt, putting on blue jeans—change for the sake of progress is true change.

And this is going to sound strange to you, but that's alright, think about it: we have to plan change. If we just let change work, it's not going to be change, it's going to be chaos. We have to plan change.

There's an old Roman proverb that says if the pilot does not know what port he's heading for, no wind is the right wind. If the pastor does not know where God wants the church to go, how he wants the church to go there, what changes need to be made, there's going to be civil war. And as my friend E.K. Bailey says, the only thing that's going to change is your address.

Bridging the Generation Gap

We're making a big mistake in our churches by alienating the older people from the younger people. I'm going to repeat that—it's a declaration of war. We're making a big mistake in our churches by alienating the older people from the younger people.

I said that my wife and I are working with college kids in the church. We have between six and seven hundred of them. They have their own worship service. It's wonderful. I just love to go worship with them.

One Sunday, one of the elders of the church, who was at that time I think ninety, ninety-one years old—they asked him to come and speak to them on how he learned how to give. So Ernest went. He sat on a stool and just told in about six, seven minutes how God taught him and his wife Annie how to give. You know what those young people did when he was through? They gave him a standing ovation.

I go and speak to them. I'm going to be seventy-four in a couple of weeks, but they respect age. Now there was a time when young people did not respect age. Today we have a generation that respects age and maturity. It's like the crowd we had back in the fifties that produced Jim Elliot and people like that. We have a remarkable crowd of younger people today who say, "Can you help me?"

But we separate the older people from the young people. You shouldn't do that.

When I was at the Moody Church, every once in a while we would take one of the adult classes—some of the "Canaanites," you know, the adult classes—and after church, after morning service, they'd have dinner with the younger class. The older class, the younger class, with the kids and everything else. They loved it. Before long a young bride would be saying to an older person, "How do you do this?"

But isn't that biblical? See, Paul wrote that to Timothy and Titus. He said, "Now Timothy, you're a young man. You treat the young men like brothers, you treat the younger women like sisters, the older men like fathers and the older women like mothers." It's a family.

And I want you to know, folks, it works. When Betty and I walk into college worship hour, nobody says, "Boy, here comes a couple of old codgers. Man alive, I bet his social security number is in Roman numerals, man alive." They don't say that. And they ask us questions about life and about the Bible and about prayer. Oh, it's wonderful. And then we ask them, "Now what about this?" And we're finding ourselves thinking younger. I wish I felt younger, but thinking younger and understanding them better. And we're building bridges.

Now you can do this in your church. Nothing's stopping you from getting the younger and the older together because the church is a family.

Three Affirmations About Change

All of this was preparatory. Aren't you glad that's over with?

What I want to do today is just present three affirmations. Here they are, they're very simple:

Our God is a God of change

God's church is perfectly equipped for change

Every pastor and leader can be a change agent

As some of you know, I'm addicted to books. I'm addicted to bookstores. I have friends who can find sports shops with their eyes closed. I've never seen a sports shop because I'm not a sports person. I played left drawback in a high school football team. But I can find bookstores, and I go into bookstores not always to buy books. I want to see what's coming out. I want to see what people are reading. And I'm noticing that little by little, younger people are learning from the older people, older people are learning from the younger people. You can see it in some of the books that are coming out.

Affirmation #1: Our God is a God of Change

It's a delight to talk to pastors because I know you know your Bibles and I don't have to explain everything to you when I mention it. You'll say, "Yeah, I know that."

Our God is a God of change. Start in Genesis chapter one: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was formless, dark, and empty." That's a great way to start. Sounds like the average church: formless, dark, and empty.

God did not speak and everything happened. How many of you have read J.B. Phillips' book Your God is Too Small? You ought to read that book, it's a good book. The new president out at Fuller Seminary says somebody should write a book called Your God is Too Fast. Now think that through. I think Dr. Mouw has made a good point.

Why is it that whatever we do it has to be done at the speed of light? God doesn't work that way. Our God is never late, but here he has this chaos and the spirit of God brooded over the face of the waters. The spirit of God and the word of God work together to bring order out of chaos. But not all at once. Day one, day two, day three. We wouldn't have done it that way.

God takes his time. He's a God of process. He's a God of change. And when you read through the Bible, you see God constantly changing his methods while never changing his message or his character.

Think about the different dispensations, if you will. Think about how God dealt with people in the Old Testament versus the New Testament. Think about how the Spirit of God worked differently in the Old Testament—coming upon people temporarily for specific tasks—versus the New Testament where the Spirit indwells believers permanently.

God is a God of change in his methods. He's always adapting his approach while remaining absolutely consistent in his character and his truth.

God Works Through Process

When you look at Genesis 1, God didn't create everything in one instant. He took six days. Why? Because God works through process. He could have done it all at once, but he chose not to. He's teaching us something about how he works.

Look at the children of Israel. How long did it take to get them out of Egypt into the Promised Land? It should have taken maybe two weeks, three weeks at the most. It took forty years. Why? Because God was changing them. He was working a process in their lives.

Jesus spent three years training twelve men. Why didn't he just zap them and make them apostles overnight? Because transformation takes time. Change is a process, not an event.

When you read through the book of Acts, you see the early church constantly adapting and changing. They started out as a completely Jewish movement. Then God had to shake Peter up with a vision to get him to go to Cornelius's house. Then you have the Jerusalem Council dealing with the question of Gentile believers. The church was constantly changing, constantly adapting, while holding fast to the unchanging truth of the gospel.

Biblical Examples of Change

Think about Abraham. God changed his name from Abram to Abraham. God changed his location—called him to leave Ur of the Chaldees and go to a land he'd never seen. God changed his expectations—promised him a son when he was way too old to have children naturally.

Think about Jacob. God changed his name to Israel. God changed his character—took a schemer and a deceiver and transformed him into a patriarch.

Think about the Apostle Paul. Talk about change! God changed his name from Saul to Paul. God changed his mission—from persecutor of the church to apostle to the Gentiles. God changed his entire worldview and life direction.

God is constantly in the business of change. The whole Bible is a record of God bringing change—personal change, corporate change, cultural change—while remaining absolutely faithful to his unchanging character and purposes.

The Pattern of God's Change Process

When God brings change, there's usually a pattern:

First, there's revelation. God shows people something new, something they haven't seen before. Think about Moses at the burning bush. Think about Isaiah in the temple. Think about Paul on the Damascus Road.

Second, there's resistance. People almost always resist what God is trying to do. Moses made excuses. Jonah ran away. The disciples couldn't understand why Jesus had to die.

Third, there's transformation. When people finally yield to what God is doing, transformation happens. And it's not just cosmetic change—it's deep, fundamental change that affects everything.

This is the biblical pattern for change. It's not quick. It's not easy. It's not painless. But it's effective because it's God's way.

Affirmation #2: God's Church is Perfectly Equipped for Change

Now here's the second affirmation: God's church is perfectly equipped for change. The church has everything it needs to navigate change successfully.

We Have the Word of God

First, we have the Word of God. The Bible is our unchanging foundation in a changing world. When everything around us is shifting, we have this rock-solid revelation from God that tells us what's true, what's right, what's important.

But here's what's interesting: the Word of God also teaches us how to change. It's filled with examples of change. It's filled with principles for change. It gives us a theology of change.

When we approach change biblically—when we see that God himself is a God of process and transformation—it takes away our fear. We can say, "This is what God does. This is how God works. We're not abandoning the faith when we adapt our methods. We're following the pattern we see in Scripture."

We Have the Spirit of God

Second, we have the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit is called the Comforter, but he's also the one who convicts, who leads, who guides into all truth. The Spirit of God helps us discern what changes are necessary and what changes are dangerous.

You need the Spirit's wisdom to know the difference between adapting your methods and compromising your message. You need the Spirit's courage to make changes when people resist. You need the Spirit's comfort when change creates conflict and difficulty.

We Have the People of God

Third, we have the people of God. The church is a body, and every member has a function. When you're facing change, you need the whole body working together.

This is why it's so important to bring the generations together. The older believers have wisdom, experience, perspective. They've seen fads come and go. They know what lasts. The younger believers have energy, creativity, fresh eyes. They can see opportunities the older folks might miss. They're not bound by "the way we've always done it."

When you put young and old together, when you get them talking and learning from each other, you have a much better chance of making wise decisions about change.

We Have the Mission of God

Fourth, we have the mission of God. Jesus gave us the Great Commission: go into all the world and make disciples. That mission never changes. That's our North Star. That's what guides all our decisions about change.

If a proposed change helps us fulfill the Great Commission more effectively, we should seriously consider it. If a proposed change undermines the Great Commission or distracts us from it, we should reject it, no matter how popular or trendy it might be.

The mission keeps us focused. The mission helps us discern between change that matters and change that's just novelty.

Affirmation #3: Every Pastor and Leader Can Be a Change Agent

The third affirmation is this: every pastor and leader can be a change agent. You don't have to be a certain personality type. You don't have to be naturally bold or innovative. You can lead your church through change if you follow biblical principles.

Start with Yourself

First, you have to deal with your own heart. Are you growing? Are you learning? Are you open to what God might be doing?

I told you I read more secular books now than I read Christian books, except for the Bible. Why? Because I want to understand the world we're trying to reach. I want to know what people are thinking, what questions they're asking, what challenges they're facing.

If you stop growing, you'll start resisting change automatically. You'll become rigid and defensive. You'll be like those learned people Eric Hoffer talked about—beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.

Teach a Biblical Theology of Change

Second, you have to teach your people a biblical theology of change. This is where most of us have failed. We've talked about changes we want to make, but we haven't laid the theological foundation.

Go through the Bible with your people. Show them how God works. Show them that God is a God of process, a God who constantly adapts his methods while remaining absolutely faithful to his character and purposes. Show them the pattern in Acts—a church that was constantly adapting while holding fast to the gospel.

When people understand that change is biblical, when they see that we're following God's pattern, they're much more willing to embrace it.

Plan Your Changes

Third, remember what I said earlier: we have to plan change. You can't just wake up one Sunday and announce, "We're doing everything differently now." That's a recipe for disaster.

Think about where God wants your church to go. What's the vision? What's the destination? Then work backwards. What changes need to happen to get there? In what order? Over what timeframe?

And involve people in the planning. Don't just spring changes on people. Bring key leaders along. Get their input. Help them see where you're going and why. When people feel like they're part of the process, they're much more likely to support the changes.

Build Bridges Between Generations

Fourth, as I've said several times now, build bridges between the generations. This is absolutely crucial. If you alienate the older generation, you lose their wisdom, their stability, their financial support, their prayers. If you alienate the younger generation, you lose your future.

The church is a family. Families include all ages. Create opportunities for young and old to interact, to learn from each other, to serve together. When a ninety-year-old can speak to college students and get a standing ovation, you know you're building bridges.

Distinguish Between Principle and Practice

Fifth, teach people to distinguish between biblical principles and cultural practices. This is huge. People resist change because they can't tell the difference between what's eternal and what's temporal.

Is it a biblical principle to worship God? Absolutely. Is it a biblical principle that worship must include a pipe organ and hymns written before 1900? No, that's a cultural practice. We can change the practice while honoring the principle.

Is it a biblical principle to make disciples? Yes. Is it a biblical principle that Sunday School must meet at 9:30 AM in classrooms with quarterly literature from a specific publisher? No, that's a practice. We can change how we do discipleship while remaining committed to the mandate.

When people understand this distinction, change becomes much less threatening.

Move at the Right Pace

Sixth, pay attention to pace. Some changes can happen quickly. Some changes need to happen slowly. Wisdom is knowing the difference.

Remember what I said about God taking six days to create the world? God works through process. Sometimes the process is fast, sometimes it's slow. Jesus spent three years with the disciples. That seems slow to us. But that's how long it took to prepare them for their mission.

Don't try to force change faster than people can absorb it. But don't drag your feet on changes that need to happen either. Pray for wisdom about timing and pace.

Keep the Main Thing the Main Thing

Finally, keep the main thing the main thing. The gospel doesn't change. The mission doesn't change. The character of God doesn't change. These are our anchors.

As long as we're anchored to the rock—anchored to Christ, anchored to Scripture, anchored to the mission—we can be geared to the times. We can adapt. We can change. We can try new things.

But if we lose our anchor, if we start compromising the gospel or abandoning the mission, then all our changes are worthless. Worse than worthless—they're dangerous.

Let me close with this. You and I are living in a time when the ages are colliding. It's not an easy time to lead. But it's a privilege to serve in such a time.

God is doing something new. He's always doing something new. And he's invited us to be part of it.

Don't be afraid of change. God is a God of change. His church is equipped for change. And you, by God's grace, can be an effective change agent.

But remember: we're anchored to the rock and geared to the times. Never lose the anchor. But don't be afraid to adjust the gears.

Let's pray together, and then this afternoon we'll continue this discussion and look at some specific strategies for implementing change in your churches.

[End of morning session]