Greetings Illinois Church of God!

I pray you had a great summer, and that life is getting back to a more normal pace as the kids get back to school and life settles down from all the summer activities.

Maybe it has been the change of season, or maybe it’s my upcoming birthday, but I’ve been thinking a lot about change lately.

My job has a lot to do with change—helping pastors and churches work through transitions, building projects, disagreements, new visions…you name it.  Helping with change is a big part of what I do.

Something I’ve noticed is that people respond to change differently. 

There are some who see change as the only way to improve and progress.  The way things are currently is always suspect.  The practices and priorities of the past may have been good in their day, but it’s now a new day and all that needs to go to make room for the latest and greatest. 

And then there’s those who see virtually all change as suspect.  For them the past is sacred, and its practices and priorities are inviolable, and each new generation must be convinced to embrace them or else.    

The truth is both sides are partly right and partly wrong.

Only identifying progress with change is like saying the only way I can improve my marriage is to get a new spouse every few years.  And those who treasure the past to the point of resisting all change is like insisting that the only way to have a good marriage is to maintain the passion and priorities of that original honeymoon period. 

Both strategies are a recipe for disaster.

The reality is, change happens…with or without us.

Why not be a part of the process? 

For the church, the mission has not changed.  Jesus looks to us to continue what he started all those years ago…finding the lost and discipling the found.  That’s pretty much it.  How that looks in Illinois or Idaho or Indonesia may look a little different, but the mission is the same.

My dear brothers and sisters in the ILCOG – to the young and to the old (and all who are in between or at least pretending to be) – stay focused on the mission.  Keep asking, “In light of the current reality around us, what do we need to do in order to maximize our resources towards finding the lost and discipling the found?”  Answer that and let the chips fall where they may—for in the end, on that great accounting day when the books are opened and the names of all the people you’ve helped are called out, you’re not regret any of the struggles that went into figuring out what needed to be changed and what needed to be kept.

Keeping the Mission central as we Run2Win…

With warmest regards,  

David L. Kemp

Greetings Illinois Church of God!

I pray you had a great summer, and that life is getting back to a more normal pace as the kids get back to school and life settles down from all the summer activities.

Maybe it has been the change of season, or maybe it’s my upcoming birthday, but I’ve been thinking a lot about change lately.

My job has a lot to do with change—helping pastors and churches work through transitions, building projects, disagreements, new visions…you name it.  Helping with change is a big part of what I do.

Something I’ve noticed is that people respond to change differently. 

There are some who see change as the only way to improve and progress.  The way things are currently is always suspect.  The practices and priorities of the past may have been good in their day, but it’s now a new day and all that needs to go to make room for the latest and greatest. 

And then there’s those who see virtually all change as suspect.  For them the past is sacred, and its practices and priorities are inviolable, and each new generation must be convinced to embrace them or else.    

The truth is both sides are partly right and partly wrong.

Only identifying progress with change is like saying the only way I can improve my marriage is to get a new spouse every few years.  And those who treasure the past to the point of resisting all change is like insisting that the only way to have a good marriage is to maintain the passion and priorities of that original honeymoon period. 

Both strategies are a recipe for disaster.

The reality is, change happens…with or without us.

Why not be a part of the process? 

For the church, the mission has not changed.  Jesus looks to us to continue what he started all those years ago…finding the lost and discipling the found.  That’s pretty much it.  How that looks in Illinois or Idaho or Indonesia may look a little different, but the mission is the same.

My dear brothers and sisters in the ILCOG – to the young and to the old (and all who are in between or at least pretending to be) – stay focused on the mission.  Keep asking, “In light of the current reality around us, what do we need to do in order to maximize our resources towards finding the lost and discipling the found?”  Answer that and let the chips fall where they may—for in the end, on that great accounting day when the books are opened and the names of all the people you’ve helped are called out, you’re not regret any of the struggles that went into figuring out what needed to be changed and what needed to be kept.

Keeping the Mission central as we Run2Win…

With warmest regards,  

David L. Kemp