Retro-New and Different

Every morning I drive for about an hour and fifteen minutes before I finally arrive at my destination of the office. And during that time I chat with Jesus about life. Sometimes we talk about family, tragedies, fun stuff, sad stuff. Sometimes I just try to listen to Him speak.

This morning He spoke through the silence and taught me something wonderful. I have been working so hard on affecting change in the part of God’s Kingdom that He has called me to and this morning I realized something wonderful.

Change is not about something new and different. Change is about retro-new and different.

As I pondered on the frustration of how to get people to see that change is necessary for effective Christian ministry, I realized that the threat is usually a fear that we will be leaving the place where God has put us. But I learned that change is really about bringing us back to the right place.

Change is the equivalent of the ref blowing his whistle during a football game when the ball has gone out of bounds. Change in ministry is the equivalent of the ref blowing the whistle because the whole team has begun to play out of bounds.

There are times, moments, decades, eras, when ministry has gone so far out of bounds that God calls a leader to blow the whistle and get people back on the playing field.

That is when leaders have to listen to God, share that vision, and inspire the team to get back on the field. The tough part is getting the players to see that they have moved away from where God wants the team to be. These are the moments when the players actually believe they are still on the field and everyone else has gone home because they don't care about the game or the team anymore.

However there is a strange and wonderful difference between football fields and ministry fields. With football the field never moves. With ministry, if we don't keep our eyes open, the field will slip right out from under us and some will never even notice it's gone.

One day the team looks up and asks, “Where is everybody? Don’t they care about the game?" The fact is God has moved the field to a whole new place where the spectators have new faces, wear different clothes, speak a different language, and may not even sit in the bleachers.

Change is what a leader does when he says to the team, It’s time to get back on the field. There is an entire world of people who need to see and be a part of the game, but they can't see us play anymore, because we have completely left the field or the field has left us."

Change is about getting the team back on the field.