The excitement of moving into a brand new facility is tempered with a period of time now known as "our homeless time." Approx. 6 months will pass between the time we exit our current facility and enter into our new one. And understandably, this is making people very nervous. The list of things that could go wrong is long and significant. As Staff and Elders, we recognize this and want to speak this out loud for all to hear. We are concerned about our church staying together during "our homeless time." I think that is why the Transition Team is struggling so dilligently to find an interim location which meets a criteria closely resembling current location, meeting times, space specifications, and such. They have a tough job (GO TEAM!!!).
And yet I wonder if we might be trying too hard to remain the same church while transitioning into a different church. Are we going to be Trinity -- the established church OR Trinity -- the brand new church plant? In my mind, there is a fundamental and important difference. Humanity has an irritating need to remain the same and avoid change at all cost WHILE EXPECTING the results and benefits of being cutting edge and expanding in growth. We want new people while singing the same old songs. We want increased financial giving while not evangelizing our neighborhoods. We want a joyous youth pastor while slammin' him to the curb at the same time. This is the very definition of insanity: doing the same things while expecting different results. It will never EVER work. I believe the same holds true for our homeless time. From the moment we leave 823 W. Fremont Avenue, Trinity will never EVER be the same. Get over it! We are going to look, feel, dream, explore, preach, worship, fellowship ... all in a brand new way. Our location will change, but in fact WE must also change. Yes, this is making us very nervous. And let me tell you why...The reason why people attend Trinity is because they like the current Trinity. Otherwise, they would choose to attend somewhere else. Our homeless time necessitates that Trinity must change. And though we would love to keep the same look, feel, worship times, Bible study times, etc., that is looking more and more unlikely. So what if people who currently like us NO LONGER like us once they see who we change into? From my perspective, that is the bottom line. On the one hand, it is legit. On the other hand, this is who God is molding and shaping us to be. I for one am extremely excited about our homeless time. It is an opportunity for us to be the brand new church plant that we are WHILE BENEFITING from the established church that we are. This probably doesn't make sense and you probably will disagree. But it's workin' for me!
2 comments:
Do we know what it is we're to become?
Without direction there, how can we plan to take advantage of, rather than simply survive, the interim period?
I think the target audience concept is the closest we've come while I've been an elder to actually setting a vision for what we hope to be (... and therefore what we should do).
Should we be lighting a fire under that effort?
Target audience is good, but as I reflect on what I see God doing to us right now, target audience may be step 2 or 3 in God's sequence for us. I see us learning to negage in our community, getting practice reaching out to our community, thinking about our community. I see us ALL be challenged to participate rather than observe.
With these lessons begun, then perhspa target audience coul dactually get something from us when we find them...
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