Wineskins Contributor・11/21/19

You know the feeling of that moment.

You’re sitting in your usual seat. The worship period isjust beginning. The elders move as a group to the pulpit. One of them stepsforward with a paper in hand, and says, “We have an announcement to make.”

Uh oh! What’s happened? What awful thing are we about tohear?

Sometimes—often—that announcement has to do with your pulpitminister. A long-tenured, much-loved minister is retiring. A young, vibrantminister—for whom everyone sees a bright future—has accepted a pulpit inanother state. There’s been an affair. Ailing parents necessitate a move. Theminister—discouraged—will be seeking secular employment.

The reasons are varied. The results are the same. Our churchis losing its pulpit minister. Our “normal” has just changed. Ahead yawns aseason of transition. Like a lost tooth, we will all feel the gap, poke andprod at it, and wonder how (when!) we can find a replacement.

Nobody welcomes transition. Nobody enjoys the loss,uncertainty, stress, doubts and dangers of a transition season. Individually,or as churches, we don’t respond with fondness to change.

Our common response to seasons of transition, then, is tohold our noses and run like mad through the transition, determinedabove-all-else to get to a new “normal” as quickly as possible. Transition isnot just inconvenient … it is intolerable. Transition is not simply stressful …it is toxic. Avoid transition! And, when it can’t be evaded, abbreviate it byevery means possible! The longer the transition, the greater our anxiety. Thelonger the transition, the more vulnerable we feel.

Hope Network Ministries believes God works mostpowerfully among his people in times of transition. Transition is not an“illness” we experience between periods of normal health but a regular interludedin the rhythm of God’s people … a necessary and wholesome “breather” in thebusyness of church life.

Consider Israel’s transition from Egypt to the PromisedLand. The Exodus wasn’t comfortable. It wasn’t predictable or safe. It madeIsrael vulnerable to hunger, thirst, and war. There was plenty of grumbling andcomplaining along the way.

But look how God used that season to accomplish powerfulthings in the life of his people: new leadership, the formation of a nation,Sinai and the revelation of the Law, fresh reliance on God’s guidance andprovision, a new home. The “interim” of the Exodus became the most formativeand transformative period in all Israel’s long history. This season oftransition resulted in new life.

Consider the Jerusalem church during the days of Saul’spersecution. The church was growing by leaps and bounds. The Spirit of God waspresent and alive and moving. The Apostles were preaching and training andmoving from house-to-house among the believers.

And then Saul threw a grenade into the good things God wasdoing—or so it must have seemed to many in the Jerusalem Church. Everythingchanged overnight. Shock. Alarm. Fear. Flight. Luke tells us Christians fled the city and“allexcept the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria” (Acts8:1). They transitioned from peace to persecution … from mega-church to a smallgroup (again) … from enjoying “the favor of all the people” to a hunted andhaunted faction.

In Acts, the transition lasted only a few verses. But, inreal time, months passed before Christians began to trickle back to the cityand resume their normal lives. But, once again, God used this period oftransition to accomplish powerful things in the life of his people. Some of theChristians who were scattered during Saul’s persecution traveled to Gentileterritory and “began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the goodnews about the Lord Jesus” (Acts 11: 20). Peter had his vision and visitedthe home of Cornelius (Acts 10). Barnabas began his gospel work among Gentilesin Antioch (Acts 11:22ff).

God used transition to drive the gospel beyond Jerusalem andthe Jews to a waiting Gentile world. Because of this transition—in spite of itspain and threat and disruption—the world changed and God’s purposes prevailed.

Hope Network Ministries believes God still does his greatest work among his people in seasons of transition. One of those transitions involves the loss of a minister. Between the last minister and the next, in that uncomfortable “interim,” God can accomplish powerful things in our churches.

The “Interim Ministry” division of Hope Network focuses on this time of transition in the local congregation. We have experience leading scores of churches through such change. We have tools and processes to help churches address the interim season in effective ways. We can help your church walk through the interim to a new and vibrant future.

Hello Wineskins Readers! This is Matt. I wanted to let you know that this article is here in conjunction with the right sidebar ad of our sponsor for November, Hope Network. We believe in what they do, so we approached them about advertising with us. I have personally benefited from their work and that is why I was excited to get the word out about what they do! Check out their site through the links above!