The only constant in life is change. There are normally two ways to accept this fact:
• Yes, and I don’t have to like it.
• Yes, and I will adjust because change is part of life.
Which of the above responses depicts how you respond to change? Your response can determine how pleasant or miserable the experience of change will be for you.
Serving on the staff of a new and fast growing church for eight years, change happened so rapidly, I often did not know if I was coming or going. In the beginning, I went with the flow of all the changes happening around me, then resisted. I became weary of change as it occurred so often, then overtime gave up hoping that things would stabilize. In the end, I finally learned that change is good. Whether change yields positive results or not, I have chosen to embrace change in order to be content while growing through it. It is been my experience that change promotes growth.
It has been said, hindsight is 20/20. Looking back on my experiences, I can see that the life cycle of the new and fast growing church is very much like physical life cycle; (infant, toddler, adolescent, pre-teen, teen, young adult, adult, middle age, and senior years). The maturity of the church, staff, and leadership all seemed to step through each parallel cycle. There were many changes during those early years; many good, many not so good, but change occurred nonetheless. Change happens all throughout life, so we can choose to fight it and be miserable or choose to embrace it and be content. Which will you choose?
In my current role as Customer Care Specialist at Fellowship Technologies, my observation is that change to a new ChMS (Church Management System) for many churches is difficult due to unpreparedness for that change. A friend of mine, former co-worker from the church I worked at and a previous Fellowship Technologies Delivery Manager, wrote a very nice article regarding change. I would like to share it with you over the coming weeks. I believe it will give you a new perspective on change as it relates to IT and the Church.
My hope is that the article will introduce you to strategies to assist in change. Because time is often a constraint for each of us and I believe this information will benefit many, I am breaking this down into a series of posts. Next time we begin with “Change and the Church – An IT Perspective”