Revitalizing Our Church Means Change
The Vision Team members have been on a two-year journey and still counting. We’ve studied, discussed and prayed. We formulated new
What does revitalization mean? Revitalization means to give new life or vigor to something. Revitalization also means renewal, revive, recover, renovate, refurbish, repair, restore, replenish, revamp, perk up, refresh, restart, stimulate, re-enforce, re-awaken, rebirth, start new, begin new, resurgence, regeneration, get well, get better, pull through, recuperate, make progress, pick up, improve, mend, restore to health.
We need to revitalize our church – give it new life and vigor. Change is part of the revitalization process. What does this mean? Revitalization is needed so our church can continue for another fifty years and more. We’ve discussed how churches have closed because they didn’t change. Since we didn’t want this for our future, we started the visioning process. Revitalization, however, doesn’t always mean total change. It can simply mean sprucing up (yes, changing things a bit) of some of things that we already do successfully. So, don’t be surprised to see old things done in new ways!
What does change mean? Change means to alter, modify, vary, transform, revolutionize, adjust, switch, exchange, amend. Change can be good or bad; however, revitalization means change for the good. Some of our traditions are, unfortunately, going to change – but we will also be embracing traditions we want to keep and, hopefully, teaching them to new people!
Let’s talk about change. Change occurs in two ways. Change can be doing totally new things, but it can also mean revamping things we already do. Either way, it means we need to change. We must learn how to embrace and engage our local community and invite them to our church. Our community needs to be encouraged to come to our church and then want to come again. We realize there are members who don’t really want to hear the word “change” because they like the traditions we have and what we are doing. However, if we are unable to embrace our community, it will be difficult to add to our membership numbers. It appears that keeping the status quo (keeping things the same) isn’t working.
Actually, Trinity has seen many recent changes, some of which are listed below:
· Sanctuary and Fellowship Hall painted
· Drums and new keyboard added to the worship service
· All-church fundraisers
· Summer worship in the lower level
· New Hymnal and Pew Bibles
· Change in order of music in the worship service
· Church picnic moved to September
· Addition of New Membership Board
However, continuous change (for the good) is essential. We hope that new ideas and changes are accepted, even if it is not what everyone expects or hopes for. New members bring new ideas. We have to be open to their ideas as well as our own. Sometimes, we may know something won’t work because we’ve tried it before and the new person doesn’t know that. However, that doesn’t mean it won’t work now. For instance, the timing of a new event was not right in the past maybe because it wasn’t properly prepared or wasn’t supported enough. So, even though we think we might know, we don’t. When there is a new idea or a change being put into place, we hope that everyone will be understanding, accepting and helpful, rather than hurt, disapproving or critical. Change is an opportunity for continuous improvement. Today’s challenge is to love, listen and share rather than forcing others to accept our ways.
Each year as members move away, change churches, quit going to church, pass away, or get married, our numbers dwindle. Therefore, we aren’t always able to keep up a busy schedule of events, and even less so now, when we want to ramp up our efforts to revitalize our church. Therefore, we may have to combine events or projects in some way or forego something we like for the sake of another. Concessions are necessary because we just can’t do everything, not until we can increase our membership numbers. We’re hoping everyone can understand this and accept what will be happening in the future. Without increasing our membership with the same amount or more of the declining numbers, Trinity could end up to be one of those closing churches. We don’t want that to happen. When our membership numbers increase, we can do more than combining or foregoing great events – we can refurbish traditions we like as well as adding great new events and ideas.
We are committed to open communication and will strive to inform and discuss in advance new things that will be happening at Trinity so everyone knows our goals. Good, honest communication is most often the best approach to having everyone accept new ideas.
If you have any questions, please ask! If you disagree, please tell someone why! If you want to volunteer or make a suggestion, please do so! Remember, open communication is what we need to get through the changes for a new future for Trinity!
Love God, love yourself, and love one another no matter the differences. Or rather, we shouldn’t compare our differences – instead compare our similarities! Let’s all pray on this.
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