As I sat in the midst of the
church council, comprised of at least a dozen grey heads, I was painfully aware
that I was only 21 years old. They had asked me to consider being their pastor.
That could not have been an easy decision for them, but I was going to ask them
to do something much harder: change. As a fledgling separatist I could not join
their church’s conference, but it would be simple enough for them to withdraw
from it, right? They could hardly understand why I would ask such a thing. They
had always been conservative and thought that holding to their solid tradition
was enough, while the world changed around them.
Today, half a lifetime
later, I am a grey head and I am struggling with the concept of change. Is it
too late in the course of church history to propose another doctrine? Not so
that I can teach it, but so that I can study it, a thorough “Changeology” needs
to be developed. I must not be the only one who is longing to know when it is
right and best to cut loose of old moorings, and when it is both courageous and
wise to hold to the time-tested. Choose your hot-button issue: Bible
translations, music, worship formats, personal separation standards, and
probably any other you can imagine, the issue is: “to change or not to change.”
In my opinion Leith Anderson
makes some good observations but comes to the wrong conclusions in his book
“Dying for Change,” perhaps the volume most to the point. He says, “Two
theological truths explain God’s relationship to change: immutability and
sovereignty.” (11) He rightly notes that change is most often chaotic for man
but never is for God. I disagree with some of his suggestions for modernizing
the church because we have different “non-negotiables,” but I appreciate his
consistency.
Growing is the stuff of life, the antonym of death. Someone
taught me that growth is painful because
it is change. It was a prolonged lesson, but that was all that I needed to hear,
I understand that change is hard. Moving from one job or ministry to another
always brings a retching pain to the pit of my stomach. I ask myself every
time: “It was right for me to come here, can it be right for me to leave? Is
this the right time for a new chapter?” By nature I enjoy doing bold things,
but I have done enough of them to know that “bold” is often another name for
“stupid.”
Not all change or growth is
positive. I have heard Dr. Les Ollila say, “Not all growth is good, it may just
be swelling!” As we seek to grow we should ask the Lord to build our
discernment first. It is a mark of maturity, along with growth in all
directions, to have the wisdom to see which new bulges are positive and which
are not!
If we find ourselves in a
rut, whether it is of our making or someone else’s, it will take a large stride
to step out of it. Stretching ourselves is the painful part of growth.
Following God’s leading consistently and faithfully, will open us to the
accusation of being in a rut. That is an accusation which the righteous man can
endure, but being consistent and faithful is the task of a lifetime.
Can fundamentalists keep
clinging to “ancient landmarks” or “old paths” and still maintain personal
growth? If I were on a sinking ship and was disposed to find something to which
I could cling for dear life, I would want to examine the qualities of my
floatation device to discern if it was really likely to float! Some ancient
landmarks are real sinkers because they are man-made and not biblical. At the same
time our world is mass-producing shiny new
floaties, which will not float. Discern between them we must.
It interests me to find that
Jeremiah’s command, “Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths,”
(6:16) was a call for the people to change their ways. He called for a radical
change. “Radical” is a synonym for “Fundamental” according to Webster, meaning
“back to the root.” There were great champions of tradition who were not truly
keeping the law in letter or spirit in Jeremiah’s day, as in ours.
(The Proverbs 22:28
statement, “Remove not the ancient landmark,” is made in the unusual situation
where context is instructive to the Proverbs reader. The landmarks to be left
alone were established business
practices. The advice involved keeping an honest reputation.)
Personal spiritual growth
will require a constant examination of what we think we know in the light of
unchanging Scripture given by an immutable God. Our personal change and
development will require strength and courage. We cannot be stagnant and be
right with God. There is no permissible plateau in the Christian experience,
which is the process of sanctification. Growth is not an option, so, neither is
change.
Grounding seems to be just as necessary as growing for obedient
believers. Change gets attention, and it can be exciting. Being attention and
adrenaline junkies, we may be tempted to enter a pattern of constant change.
Some call it a “slippery slope” when one change leads to another, undoubtedly
as obstacles are overcome and we are more practiced at it, making changes
becomes easier. We are cautioned that it is just as important to stop when
enough has been done as it is to get started. Proverbs 24:21 “My son, fear thou
the LORD and the king: and meddle not with them that are given to change.”
(KJV)
Another poor motive for
change may be proving our bravery, our independence, and our free-thinking.
Living in this world we cannot help but be affected by its atmosphere of
anarchy. We may fear being written off as irrelevant if we are not moving in
some proportion to the world around us. We want to be bold and be different.
Yet, it seems that the masses become more alike as they all strive to be
different. True courage and individuality may require willingness to be the
last one clinging to a timeless tradition. The difficulty is discerning the
value of the tradition in our grasp.
The Apostle Paul’s example
might be instructive here. He was constantly changing venues of ministry and
making plans and changing his plans. He also wrote about changing his approach
in different circumstances, “I am made all things to all men.” (I Corinthians
9:22) His “non-negotiables” were the gospel and the doctrine which he taught,
and the Galatians were warned to accept no “other.”
What we are to be producing
for the Lord is most often pictured by a building with foundations rather than
a trailer or a tent. The changes which He prescribes lead us to more growth in
the short term, but ultimately He is producing something timeless and
unchanging. “I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing
can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men
should fear before him.” Ecclesiastes 3:14
Glorifying God is supposed to be the focus and highest end of our
lives. We want to keep growing, and we want grounding, but there must be a
hierarchy of these values, and when God has lost preeminence we have made at
least one change too many.
To check our motives for
change it may be helpful for us to ask, “Who are we trying to impress?” It is
tempting for some fundamentalists to push boundaries or do things differently,
so that they will get noticed. Rather than accusing brothers of
attention-seeking, or of sacrificing orthodoxy out of pragmatism, we should not
pretend to know their motives. We should be on guard, but for violations of
Scripture not just tradition.
Personal growth was the
focus earlier, but everyone involved in ministry loves to see the corporate kind of growth as well. What
we will do to encourage or facilitate that growth begs the question, “Who are
we doing it for?” We can argue that ministry growth is numbered in souls being
affected and that the desperate need of souls is worthy of our most creative
efforts. At the same time, though, we know better than to construct a
man-centered ministry, we are not doing anything for people if we are not doing
it for their Creator.
Like Moses, we are only to
move with the pillar of cloud or fire. We are to hit the rock when God says so,
and to change to speaking to it when He says. Moses could not set their course
by the people’s complaints or his own whim or ambition.
Do I need to tell you that
the church council that I mentioned in the beginning voted against my proposed
change? They admitted that they were driven by financial fear because the
conference held a $30,000 note on their $500,000 building. The Lord did direct
two of the men to plant a new church with this young pastor, and a lot of
change was in store for all of us. Not all of it was done in faith, hence the
grey hairs. Change has only become more difficult since then, so I will be
first to buy your book on the new doctrine of “Changeology!”
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