Think Different: Faith, Change, and Our Calling
I have my own theory about why decline happens at companies like IBM or Microsoft. The company does a great job, innovates and becomes a monopoly or close to it in some field, and then the quality of the product becomes less important. The company starts valuing the great salesmen, because they’re the ones who can move the needle on revenues, not the product engineers and designers. So the salespeople end up running the company.
[Excerpt from Walter Isaacson’s book, “Steve Jobs”]
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ of Peace and Grue Parish,
Blessings to you as we continue our journey together as brothers and sisters in Christ. Many of you know that my husband Monty is a commodities broker, and we often share various articles with another related to both of our vocations. It never surprises me when an article he’s shared with me related to the financial world is also applicable to church life.
Last week he shared an article, “Think Different” from Jared Dillian’s Substack newsletter. Dillian speaks about innovation, and how complacency and getting stuck in a “This is the way it’s always been done!” mindset prohibits innovation. We can certainly see this over the past several decades in the church universal. We forget how radically counter-cultural Jesus was in his ministry, and that Christ and the most influential historical leaders of the church were less concerned about their comfort levels than simply prioritizing the seemingly simple, commission of Christ, to love God and to love and care for our neighbor, all of them.
Our human natures gravitate towards the familiar, and that’s a beautiful thing to cherish beloved hymns, traditional worship elements, especially during times such as Christmas and Easter. But that can’t be the only thing, the world that we’re called into is constantly changing, and we’ve seen how limiting “church success” to things we can quantify such as attendance and offering can stifle our imaginations. Not unlike the Steve Jobs quote I’ve posted above, we need to shift our focus on worldly defined “results” to what Christ is calling us to do to love and serve a hurting world.
A pretty big ask, but in Dillian’s article, he talks about how we humans are only open to small incremental changes, which in the church is certainly true. But that shouldn’t discourage us from taking small steps to try new things.
That said, it doesn’t mean throwing the baby out with the bathwater either. Change with no purpose and only for the sake of change gets us nowhere. Perhaps if we take a step back, shift our focus from
“running a church” to the ministry of loving service Christ calls us to, our collective imaginations will open up to seemingly small changes that can be woven into our ministry.
I would love to hear and visit with you regarding the things in church that you find comforting as well as any innovative ideas you have to enhance and improve how we are church and community together. Monty and I continue to pray for all of you, for safety, for patience, and perseverance and that you are reminded of God’s presence and finding the hope of the Risen Christ. Just as we are transformed in Christ, together we are agents of transformation within our community in ways large and small.
God’s peace to you and all you hold dear,
Pastor Julie
Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth.