Open to Change?

My byline is: “Crazy enough to change the world.

Mutability. Change. Delta.

The concept of change is the fulcrum of the Gospel message.

Am I willing to look at myself in the mirror, accept who I am, (not) and commit to the hard work of change?

The Gospel message is about change. Changed hearts. Changed lives. Changed motivations. Changed intentions. Changed directions.

Without change– a life with Jesus becomes good information at best and good entertainment at worst.

Without change– the Gospel is devoid of value.

God changed the course of human history when He sent Jesus to die on a cross. He changed how he engaged humanity so you could change your life.

To anthropomorphize it, God changed in the hope that we would change.

Accepting Jesus is accepting that you need to change.

But I wonder how many people are actually open to change in their lives?

Am I open to change?

Are you?

Is change a part of your life? Or do you just talk about it, asking others to change, but you are too good for that?

Or are you afraid to appear weak, displaying a changed heart?

If my byline is “Crazy enough to change the world” that implies that I’m always on the lookout for people, organizations, groups who are willing to change.

Sadly, among Jesus followers, few seem open to change.

They refuse to accept who they can become, thus refuse to change.

Pride sets in, change becomes impossible, and we become “about the Gospel” without living into the Gospel.

Christian organizations would rather go out-of-business, accepting failure, than change.

Churches would rather reach a decreasing congregation in an increasing population than change.

This deeply saddens me.

Oh, that we might be a people changed by the Gospel.

Comments

2 responses to “Open to Change?”

  1. RayDeck3 Avatar

    That’s a good word, Adam.

    I had never thought about the interaction between change and the gospel. There is a really interesting relationship there.

    The observation you made about pride resulting in protection of the status quo I found particularly astute. The more I think about it, the more I think that humility and faith are the same thing. It takes humility to come to the conclusion: “I can’t change myself. I need someone greater than me.” Maybe… thinking outloud here… faith is the one-step-further of concluding that Jesus is the only one who can change my heart.

    Great post. I’ll be thinking about this all day, I’m sure.

  2. Brandon Collins Avatar

    These observations are excellent. Encouraging and disheartening at the same time.

    On one hand, “Churches would rather reach a decreasing congregation in an increasing population than change.” On the other hand, humility is all it takes to be transformed by the gospel (even after we’re saved) and allow God to increase our ministries.

    I think Pride is a huge reason for lack of change in the church of America. Do you think another might be ignorance? Some people know they need to change, but what should we become? What will “fix our broken ministry”?

    Interested to hear some thoughts on this.

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