Much Ado About… Something

Much ado about… something.

We’ve all heard the phrase, “They’re just making much ado about nothing.”  It’s a Shakespearian play, a movie title, and probably best known as a simple phrase which I take to mean “They’re making a big deal out of something that’s not a big deal.”  Many times this is true – we tend to be resistant to change.  We get upset when the rug is pulled out from under us.  We all think we know better than those who make the decisions.  We assign, as a counselor friend of mine liked to say, “mal-intent” – suggesting that the motives, or process, or tactics, or whatever of the decision makers is just wrong.  And many times we find later that our concerns, our prognostication, and our reactions turn out to be simply… wrong.

I have a great deal of experience with dealing with the difficulty of change – from both ends.  Throughout my professional career, I have been subjected to a great deal of change; some of it I’ve been given input, some of it I’ve even been a part of the decision making process, and some of it I’ve had no input at all.  Those of you who know me well know that it would be an understatement to say I have strong opinions about certain things.  As someone with this “bent,” it is always hard to deal with decisions that are made – with or without your input or consent- when they don’t go your way; when they are contrary to the direction you feel something needs to go.

I’ve spent a lot of time on the other end of “change” as well.  As a leader of a worship ministry that is as large or larger than many church congregations in America, I’ve instigated my fair share of change on our people and on our congregation.  I’ve watched as ideas that I’ve had – that many people may have been against, been concerned about, suggested were wrong – have grown our ministry and reached people for Christ.  I’ve also watched as some of my best intentions have turned into an “epic fail” –  things that I’ve prayed about, gotten council about, navigated and lead with all of the skill that God has given me just plain didn’t work.

All that being said, our church is going through a time of transition right now.  And let me tell you… it is much ado… about something.  This one isn’t inconsequential.  Change is hard.  This one is big.   The feelings released are real.  The consequences are vast.  And as I struggle through my own feelings, and as I watch the reactions of others, I can’t help but wanting to throw down some learning points I’ve had over the years, in the hopes that it will help any random person who reads this to process, understand, and cope with the difficulty we’re going through now in a Godly way.

Leaders don’t want to hurt people – but they know they sometimes do, and sometimes even have to. The change we are going through now – the restructure of our staff, and consequently the loss of some long time staff members – is going to hurt people.  There’s no reason to say something different.  It’s true.  It hurts the people who lose their jobs.  It hurts the people who have worked and served with them.  It hurts the people who have built relationships with them.  There’s no way around this truth.  A Godly leader would never do this unless they felt there was a God-reason.

Leaders have to look at the organization, and make hard decisions.  Sometimes those decisions effect just a few people, sometimes they effect the whole organization and beyond.  Underlying it all in the church is a simple question… “How can we reach people for Christ?”  A pastor is entrusted by God to do the best he can with the resources available to him to reach people for Christ.  This is a big deal.  A really big deal.  A really, really big deal.  Sometimes accomplishing that mission requires difficult decisions that effect every life in an organization.  So you have to ask yourself, do I believe the scriptures that say God has placed those leaders in their places for a season and for a reason, and do I believe that those leaders are doing their best for God, for His kingdom, and for His church?  I struggle with second-guessing other leaders.  I struggle with thinking my tactics are right; that my way would work better.  But I’ve never had any reason – ever- to think that the leadership of our church is not doing the best they can, using what God has given them, to reach people for Christ and to grow the existing body into fully functioning followers of Christ.  In decisions of the magnitude that we are dealing with right now, they have prayed, sought council, lost sleep, prayed some more, sought some more council, lost some more sleep…  Leaders are well aware that these decisions will hurt people, and no one wants that.  But if God is speaking, saying the church needs to shift directions a bit to reach more people for Christ, leaders have to listen, and act.

For Leaders, These are Kobayashi Maru Situations…For awhile. OK, I’ll admit it.  I’m a “Treky.”  I watched a lot of Star-Trek growing up, and I know the references.  For the uninitiated, the Kobayashi Maru was a test in Star Trek – the “unwinnable scenario.”  Imagine the point-of-view of a leader.  Culture has changed.  Financial realities make it impossible to do everything that you want.  You look at your organization, and realize that there are areas that have the potential to grow, to get better, to reach more people.   You feel like God gives you a plan to move the church toward its redemptive potential.  But you just can’t do everything.  Reality sets in, and you realize that you have to give up to go up.  You have to sacrifice some areas to achieve the vision.  It truly feels like a no-win scenario.  Change will create pain, but ultimately achieve the goals.  You decide.

Here’s the really interesting thing, though.  Things are not what they seem.  Is it possible that leaving things the way they are is actually a worse option than change?  Here’s a reality that not a lot of people are willing to talk about.  Our church hadn’t grown in 7 years.  That’s not to say that ministry isn’t being done.  Lives are being changed.  People are coming to know Christ.  People are growing in their relationship with him.  But let’s contrast that with the 30% yearly growth rate that we had for the first four or five years I served here.  Is it possible that some change is needed?  While it’s undeniable that people are being reached, how many more people could be reached if we could regain the growth that we once had?  And that’s where the no-win scenario can become a win.  If it works.  If the changes, made to support the vision, achieve that vision.  Look at the great leaders in history, in the church, wherever.  I guarantee that one unifying factor is that they were willing to make the hard choices to achieve the vision, despite public opinion that at times didn’t agree or understand.  We need to look at the motivation behind the changes we are going through – change the lens we are looking through – and see how God may change our understanding, attitudes, and responses.

It’s A Rare Person Who Truly Seeks to Understand.  I think of the verse that says, “Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.”  I don’t know about you, but with something like this I tend to be quick to react, quick to speak my mind, and my anger overwhelms me.  How very Christian – not!  We tend to react emotionally – even those of us who are not high on the emotional scale.  We tend to think about how the change will affect us.  We think how the change will affect the people losing their jobs.  We think how the change will affect the church.  And we don’t like it.  We like the way it was.  We like the people we were doing it with.  We don’t agree.

But do we truly seek to understand.  Are we quick to listen – to find out the why’s behind the decision.  If we have questions or concerns, are we contacting the leaders who have the answers, or are we sharing our questions and concerns with our friends.  I hate to be the one to break it to you, but there’s a biblical word for that one…  it’s gossip.

I’m sad to say that when things like this come up, it’s a rare person who steps up and actually talks to the leadership who make the decisions.  People talk to everyone else.  We judge.  We quit.  We leave.  This is where the “assigning of mal-intent” comes into play.  We assume the worst.  We assume that the decisions weren’t well thought out, or prayed about.  But rarely do we bring the concerns to the people who can actually answer the questions.  Rarely do we seek to understand all of the pain, thought, work, and agony that went into the decisions in the first place.

So, what can we do?  What should we do.  This is just one man’s opinion, but in the unlikely event you’ve made it this far through this novella, then I guess you might want to hear it.  I, for one, am sad.  I’m angry.  I’m struggling with my feelings, and wanting to make sure my reactions are Godly.  But here’s where I’m at…

• Honor those who have served faithfully.  I think this is a time to honor those who have lost their positions.  Just because what they were doing no longer fits into the vision of the church with the resources available to us, it doesn’t mean that what they’ve done to serve God and His church isn’t valuable.  It doesn’t take away from the blessings that they have given us.  It doesn’t take away from the eternal rewards that God will surely give for their service.  So let’s honor those people who are most effected by the change.
• Believe the best of our leaders.  We get ourselves in big trouble when we assign mal-intent.  And we rarely catch ourselves doing it.  Here are some questions that might be helpful.  Do I really believe that the leaders of the church are out for the good of the church?  Do I think they are driven by reaching the lost, and growing people into fully functioning followers of Christ?  Are our leaders actions consistent with biblical moral values?  Would our leaders ever purposely do something to sabotage the welfare of the church or its people?  I’m sure I could come up with a bunch more like it, but you get the drift.  If you’re answering “yes” to any of these questions, then it sounds like a conversation is in order.
• Seek to understand where we are at, where we are going, and the “why’s” of all of the above before reacting, making life-changing decisions, or judging.
• For heaven’s sake (and really – think of the meaning of that phrase; what we as Christians are called to do and be) if you have questions, problems, concerns, issues, etc. etc., come in and talk to someone who can give you correct answers.  Let’s not let the gossip train gain steam.  That’s a sure way to make Satan happy, and that’s a sure way to make sure we’re the ones who are sabotaging the vision and direction.

I hope all of this is helpful to you in some way.  I titled this – my first blog – as “A much ado about something.”   It’s because I think it’s reasonable to see the changes going on in our church as a big thing.  It is.  It’s affecting all of us.  My prayer is two-fold.  That as we walk through this together, we can all look to God to help us respond according to His will, and that as we look back on this time in our church’s history, we can see with the 20/20 vision that hindsight gives us that God was indeed working through it all, and that He did indeed have plans for us… plans to prosper us, not to harm us.  Plans to give us hope and a future.

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