Facing the storms of change in our lives

I have been reading a variety of books.  One that I have talked about has been "One Month to Live."  Another that I am reading for a leadership development is Deep Change by Robert Quinn.  What is interesting is when the two books intersected on the concept of change and facing our fears regarding change.

In Deep Change, Quinn talks about that we face a choice either we do incremental change where we delude ourselves in thinking that we are in control and we do deep change both within the organization and within ourselves.  Incremental change reacts to outside forces by reinforcing the status quo and does not disrupt our past patterns.  This leads to a slow death of an organization as it no longer is adaptable to changes externally and internally.  Deep change distorts existing patterns of action and involves taking risks and means surrounding control.  His concern that there are four prominent common characteristics in organizations that are dying (which we could include mainline churches).  The first is that this is pervasive and common in the conservative "don't rock the boat" cultures.  It has little do to with experienced, competent, and well-intentioned people.  Change is needed but this need is denied.  The second characteristic is the violation of trust.  Leaders may recognize that change is needed but end up doing something else.  Self-interest triumphs over collective responsibility.  The third characteristic is a thirst for vision.  Leaders try to hide the need for change despite everyone knowing that it needs to happen or they cope by withdrawing or by staying overly busy with insignificant issues.  The last characteristic is burnout.  A lack of energy is shown by the leaders and I would include the lack of accountability themselves and for others.

Where the books intersect is on immaturity in facing life's difficulties.  In Deep Change, he tells a story of a young boy and a swing.  The gist of the story is that the young boy so enjoys swinging on the swing set that he will not let go despite that fact that the parents are about ready to leave.  The point is that we often hang on to what we know rather than risk letting go and going into the unknown.  When we do that Quinn states we act out of our own selfishness and immaturity because of our fear.  He states "we must confront our own immaturity, selfishness and lack of courage.  In a sense, life is all about our forceful, often overpowering need to take journeys, yet our tendency is to grip the swings ever more tightly (37)."

The authors of One Month to Live use the scripture from Acts regarding Paul's journey at sea and the storms that came up.  The sailors initially tried to sail into the storm but that did not work and they ended up sailing with the storm.  The point they try to make is that change is inevitable and one can waste a lot of time and energy trying to fight against it.  "If you don't learn to adapt to life's unexpected situations and move along with them, your ship will be destroyed.  In the midst of life's worst blows, you can be tempted to cling to the past and romanticize the way things used to be... Change is frightening, uncertain, and threatening, but it also can be healthy, refreshing and necessary (136-137)."

What both books imply for both the individual and the church is that we face a choice in our lives about how we are going to adapt to change around us.  Do we cling to the past or do we let go?  Jesus points us to a new understanding of what we are to do and it is not found in continuing to cling to past rituals but to open ourselves up and commit ourselves to something new.