Moving always means change.
If a person or family moves from one house or community to another, their world will change. The distance they move will, in large part, determine how big the change it will be. For instance, moving across the street or across town to a bigger or smaller house will mean only minor tweaking to the family’s routine, but moving from Canada to Thailand will involve major adjustments.
Whether moving is positive or negative depends on the attitude of those who are moving.
For some, moving is disruptive because it takes that which is familiar, satisfying, and comfortable, and turns it upside down. Moving is troublesome.
For others, moving is exciting because it gives them a chance to take those routines which have become stale, boring, and no longer productive and modify them for the better. For such people, moving is energizing!
Moving from where we are to where we want to be involves doing the work required to get there. Moving involves cleaning, preparing, folding, packing, loading, unloading, arranging, and then rearranging.
In the process, moving may also mean sorting and pitching things we no longer need or use; things which once served a purpose but which now no longer work. Sometimes it means letting go of things we have stored but not used for a long, long time. Sometimes it may even mean getting new stuff to replace the old and worn.
In Canada East we are Moving from Maintenance to Mission.
Are you ready?
Thursday, October 29, 2009
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That last paragraph reminded me of another "last paragraph."
ReplyDeleteDo you think we might have to make some decisions about "what matters most"?
Absolutely! Do you have further thoughts on that?
ReplyDeleteYou say "moving involves doing the work" and yet everywhere we look, in the congregation, at the mission level, even world church, there seem to be fewer people to do the work. How do you propose we get this necessary work done when we have less and less people?
ReplyDeleteOr are you implying there's some "other" kind of work we can do with the ones of us who are left? Can you say more about that, or am I off track?
Anonymous, there is an old saying that goes, "if we always do what we've always done, we'll always get what we've always got.
ReplyDeleteDuring the last 50 years (since about 1960), what we've always done has gotten us more and more decline. It is clear that the work we are doing is not producing the results we want. To answer your question directly, yes, I think it is time we tried working differently.
In many congregations, much of the work we do is geared towards trying to keep things going the way they are, or more accurately, the way they used to be. We sometimes refer to that as "maintenance ministry." Tomorrow's blog post will have more to say about that.
All of this is my opinion, and I am happy to discuss it further if others see it differently. Please feel free to post your comments.
Anonymous, does any of this answer your question? Any more thoughts?
exellent blog Carman! and i thought yesterday's would be hard to top!
ReplyDeletei am happy to see us making a move from maintenance to mission! and the moving analogy has really spoken to me!
john
now, so there is no confusion, i have created a google account.
ReplyDeletejohn
Good Job!
ReplyDelete