CHANGE

I liked my old computer.
I have had it since I was moved upstairs at work. It had all my bookmarks, old e-mails that were special, I knew my way around it. It was a little slow, and had been crashing some lately but I was comfortable with it. I was running Windows 98, which I know is old school, but it was pretty simple to run.
My boss was having all the computers at work updated to XP. They were not going to give me a new computer, just slap in some more memory and put XP on. I was okay with it I guess, there was not a lot I could do about it.
Then it happened.
The guy who was doing the upgrades suggested giving me a brand new computer, a short time later my old computer was gone. How sad it was that something I had spent so much time with, got comfortable with, had used a lot, was gone.
You think I'm making to big a deal about my old computer?
Careful.
I have found that changing things in churches become MUCH bigger deals. Change a service time, or order of service. Change worship music or leader, go to two services, cancel a service or add a service, and you might find yourself in the worst fight of your life.
Why?
I think that a lot of it is the generation we deal with. They have seen so much change in their lives (and I'm afraid not a lot of good changes) that the last thing they want changed is the church they attend. That is one aspect of their life they can control, and heaven help whoever messes with it.
Comfort has a lot to do with it also. We get used to things the way they are, and we know at 9:30 service will start, we will do this and that, we will sing some songs, the preacher will talk and then we will go home to eat.
Now repeat that for about three thousand times. No wonder our worship life gets a little stale.
Now before I go any farther I want to state something very plainly. I DO NOT believe in changing something just for the sake of change. That's just asking for trouble. But we do need to look at every aspect of our time together and ask, can we do it better?
Maybe we should ask a better question. What has become sacred in our churches? Our traditions and service schedule or the savior we came to worship?
My new computer is really fast and I kind of like it.
Who would of thought?