A Challenge with Change

Being in a new location, a new call, you can't help but think about change. I'm experiencing all kinds of change living and interacting with all kinds of new people. I look around at the ministry we're doing here and I see things I want to change. I know I can't change it all at once, and I also know I need to be smart about how we might go about change. I know we can't just change for change sake, but at the same time I realize it is much easier to suggest change than to have it suggested.

You see, one of the great challenges in proposing change is that it can very easily be heard as invalidating what has been done in the past. Say for instance you move into a new house and you suggest that you need to change the 70's shag carpet. The previous owner just might hear that as their choice of carpet was a bad choice. At the time it was probably a good choice, but now there are options that might work a little better for the current needs. If I were to suggest we change the way we worship or do a certain program might not the same thing happen? Might it be heard that what they are doing was a "bad" choice. It isn't at all a "bad" way of doing it, but it might be time for an update... and I'm really trying to help and not tear down.

Now, if I can just learn to hear that in my personal life. How might things go differently if I didn't hear Dawn's suggestions of doing things a different way not as a personal attack but an honest effort to help?... sometimes it's easier to ask others to change than to change yourself.