Our family recently moved from New Mexico to Texas. As you can imagine, this made for some pretty big changes. We found ourselves in a new neighborhood, looking for a new church, having to find new grocery stores and gas stations and seeking to build new relationships.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been exciting, but also pretty stressful. Change \u2013 especially big change \u2013 is hard. I\u2019ve found myself grieving certain small things. I can\u2019t go to what was my favorite coffee shop in our previous town. I don\u2019t recognize faces when I walk into the auto shop or the gas station.<\/p>\n
Even exciting new journeys bring their share of grief along the way. As a pastor, I\u2019m not sure I\u2019ve taken enough time to allow people to grieve the big and small things when we\u2019ve introduced changes.<\/p>\n
Our family communicated a lot throughout this whole process. Our kids, now 13 and 12, were brought in on this possibility very early on during a family meeting. We made sure we were on the same page. My wife and I tried to give them as much information as possible about what was happening with the move, where we were in the process, and answering their questions. Oftentimes, the answer to those questions was a simple, \u201cI don\u2019t know those details right now.\u201d That didn\u2019t necessarily make it easier, but I think it made it a bit less hard.<\/p>\n
During one of the last nights before we loaded the truck, my wife made a comment to our kids that struck me. She said, \u201cThis is going to be hard. A lot of things will change. But, no matter what, we will be together. That won\u2019t change.\u201d<\/p>\n
I think it\u2019s important to understand this as a church family as well. When your church is facing a change, you should communicate as much as you can. If you don\u2019t know the answer to certain questions, it\u2019s OK to simply say, \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d Change brings about a whole lot of unknowns, and it\u2019s all right to acknowledge that.<\/p>\n
But I also think it\u2019s immensely important to communicate that, no matter what changes, at the end of the day, a church body is a family. Will you always get along? No. Will you sometimes disagree strongly about seemingly insignificant things? Yes. But no matter what, at the end of the day, you\u2019re still a family. You\u2019re still part of the same body of Christ.<\/p>\n
So, our family is still navigating the changes that come from a move. I imagine we will for the next several months. And then, do you know what will happen? We\u2019ll settle into a routine and things will feel \u201cnormal.\u201d They\u2019ll feel different and weird for a while, but we\u2019ll get used to the new rhythm.<\/p>\n
The same is true of leading change in your church. Yes, things may be awkward for a while. But eventually, you\u2019ll settle into a new rhythm, and it will feel natural.<\/p>\n
And, no matter what, we\u2019re still a family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Our family recently moved from New Mexico to Texas. As you can imagine, this made for …<\/p>\n