Change Theology
I am a hypocrite. There, I said it. I desire change, I love change, I thrive on change; yet a few years ago my parents started talking about selling the family home and building a new house. I was (and still am) the very vocal opposition to that plan. My parents have lived in the same house virtually my entire life; this is the land that my grandparents lived on, this is the land that my father was raised on and this is the only home that my brother and I have ever known. They where desiring change and where willing to risk some things to see that change come to fruition in their lives; yet here I was the one who supposably loved change more than anyone else in the family and I was the one standing against it.
I had a very stable childhood, unusual in my generation, my father is one of the most stable people I have ever known and I think that my parents really provided for me an incredibly secure life and as a result I felt comfortable with change because I knew that they wouldn’t change. As I look back now I can see that they laid a foundation for me that they probably don’t even realize. I don’t really remember how it was or when it was that I came to realize that change was good and even Godly. I remember always kinda having an inward cringe every time I heard the phrase "God never changes." I didn’t really realize why it bothered me so much. I recently heard that phrase during a sermon and I just kinda tuned out and started thinking about it; does God really never change?
As I have been on this emerging/postmodern journey I have started to rethink and reexamine many of the things that I have always been taught and believed. Change and God’s relationship to change is just the latest in this list of topics that I have been thinking about.
As Christians we long for and desire change in new believers. Conversion and repentance by their very definitions are change – it is a complete 180 change from a previous life to a new life in Christ. We want and desire baby Christians to renew their mind (Ephesians 4:23). We embrace theologies of sanctification, transformation and regeneration as truth. Yet we think that while change within an individual person is a Godly thing; change within the church is not. The metaphors that we use about God being the same yesterday, today and forever, God as our fortress and foundation don’t emphasize the God that I know.
As I read the Bible I see a God that loves change and at times forces change onto his people. In Zechariah 7:11-14 God basically says to either change with the wind of God or He will change you through the whirlwind. Abraham moving to the promised land, his descendents moving to Egypt, the deliverance out of Egypt; that all looks like change to me. The list just goes on and on about how God viewed change as good and necessary. The prophets talk about change a lot. Jeremiah 31:31 talks about God making a new covenant, Habakkuk 1:5 talks about God doing a work in your day that you would not believe even if you were told about it. God tells us about the men of Issachar who knew and understood the times in I Chronicles 12:32. I don’t believe that it was just a story – I think that God is giving a clue here that we need to understand the times that we are living in and not just in regards to the second coming, as this verse is so often used in conjunct with, but that we need to understand the culture and the people that we are dealing with. If you don’t get the picture that God is all about change from under the old covenant than lets look at Jesus.
Jesus was the master agent of change. He turned the whole world upside down and changed things for all of eternity. While here He completely deconstructed the religion of Israel. He went around upsetting the money changers in the Temple, He hung out with tax collectors and lepers, and He challenged the religious folks at every turn. Jesus instituted a whole new level of change. Let’s just think what a miracle and signs and wonders are – they are change.
The Church was birthed out of incredibly dramatic change. If you don’t think that the Day of Pentecost was dramatic change then we need to talk. If you don’t think that 3,000 people being added to the Church in one day was change than I don’t know what is. In Acts 15 at the Council in Jerusalem it appears to me that they where emphasizing the need for the church to change and adapt to the culture. They specifically said that a gentile did not have to come out of their culture to become a follower of Jesus.
Yet in the Church today we have become so adverse to change that we are losing our relevance to the common pre-Christian person. The Church was established on the promise of change; change in hearts, marriages, and cities. I believe that we are called not only to be changed but to embrace change and be the catalysts for change. If we refuse to change than we are refusing to obey. I have recently been praying that God would encourage in me a sense of adventure on the journey. I really feel that it is important that we not have to be dragged along and forced to change but that we willingly follow the Holy Spirit and be thrilled that we are being asked to change. I think that a sense of adventure is what we, or at least I, need in order to remember that change is positive and Godly. Yes, change can be very scary. We rarely want to venture out into the unknown, but that is where the adventure and fun is.
I really feel very strongly about words such as heritage and legacy. I desire to passionately follow after God and go wherever He desires to take me. Yet I don’t want to go alone; I want to take others with me. I desire that at the end of my life I can say that I have finished my race; but I don’t want my children and future generations to start where I started. I want them to start where I finish. I want them to go deeper and farther with God than I was able to go; I want them to see that it is OK to follow God into the unknown, to take risks for and with God. But future generations will only know that that is a possibility if they see and experience first hand us (me) take risks and follow God passionately into the unknown.
We can’t live in the past; the 1950’s will never exist again and as a Church we need to move on and change in a way that allows us to impact and change this generation for God. I feel that the Spirit of God has started the winds of change blowing across the hearts of those that are seeking His heart. Are we going to change willingly and joyfully; expecting God to move in and through us?
I had a very stable childhood, unusual in my generation, my father is one of the most stable people I have ever known and I think that my parents really provided for me an incredibly secure life and as a result I felt comfortable with change because I knew that they wouldn’t change. As I look back now I can see that they laid a foundation for me that they probably don’t even realize. I don’t really remember how it was or when it was that I came to realize that change was good and even Godly. I remember always kinda having an inward cringe every time I heard the phrase "God never changes." I didn’t really realize why it bothered me so much. I recently heard that phrase during a sermon and I just kinda tuned out and started thinking about it; does God really never change?
As I have been on this emerging/postmodern journey I have started to rethink and reexamine many of the things that I have always been taught and believed. Change and God’s relationship to change is just the latest in this list of topics that I have been thinking about.
As Christians we long for and desire change in new believers. Conversion and repentance by their very definitions are change – it is a complete 180 change from a previous life to a new life in Christ. We want and desire baby Christians to renew their mind (Ephesians 4:23). We embrace theologies of sanctification, transformation and regeneration as truth. Yet we think that while change within an individual person is a Godly thing; change within the church is not. The metaphors that we use about God being the same yesterday, today and forever, God as our fortress and foundation don’t emphasize the God that I know.
As I read the Bible I see a God that loves change and at times forces change onto his people. In Zechariah 7:11-14 God basically says to either change with the wind of God or He will change you through the whirlwind. Abraham moving to the promised land, his descendents moving to Egypt, the deliverance out of Egypt; that all looks like change to me. The list just goes on and on about how God viewed change as good and necessary. The prophets talk about change a lot. Jeremiah 31:31 talks about God making a new covenant, Habakkuk 1:5 talks about God doing a work in your day that you would not believe even if you were told about it. God tells us about the men of Issachar who knew and understood the times in I Chronicles 12:32. I don’t believe that it was just a story – I think that God is giving a clue here that we need to understand the times that we are living in and not just in regards to the second coming, as this verse is so often used in conjunct with, but that we need to understand the culture and the people that we are dealing with. If you don’t get the picture that God is all about change from under the old covenant than lets look at Jesus.
Jesus was the master agent of change. He turned the whole world upside down and changed things for all of eternity. While here He completely deconstructed the religion of Israel. He went around upsetting the money changers in the Temple, He hung out with tax collectors and lepers, and He challenged the religious folks at every turn. Jesus instituted a whole new level of change. Let’s just think what a miracle and signs and wonders are – they are change.
The Church was birthed out of incredibly dramatic change. If you don’t think that the Day of Pentecost was dramatic change then we need to talk. If you don’t think that 3,000 people being added to the Church in one day was change than I don’t know what is. In Acts 15 at the Council in Jerusalem it appears to me that they where emphasizing the need for the church to change and adapt to the culture. They specifically said that a gentile did not have to come out of their culture to become a follower of Jesus.
Yet in the Church today we have become so adverse to change that we are losing our relevance to the common pre-Christian person. The Church was established on the promise of change; change in hearts, marriages, and cities. I believe that we are called not only to be changed but to embrace change and be the catalysts for change. If we refuse to change than we are refusing to obey. I have recently been praying that God would encourage in me a sense of adventure on the journey. I really feel that it is important that we not have to be dragged along and forced to change but that we willingly follow the Holy Spirit and be thrilled that we are being asked to change. I think that a sense of adventure is what we, or at least I, need in order to remember that change is positive and Godly. Yes, change can be very scary. We rarely want to venture out into the unknown, but that is where the adventure and fun is.
I really feel very strongly about words such as heritage and legacy. I desire to passionately follow after God and go wherever He desires to take me. Yet I don’t want to go alone; I want to take others with me. I desire that at the end of my life I can say that I have finished my race; but I don’t want my children and future generations to start where I started. I want them to start where I finish. I want them to go deeper and farther with God than I was able to go; I want them to see that it is OK to follow God into the unknown, to take risks for and with God. But future generations will only know that that is a possibility if they see and experience first hand us (me) take risks and follow God passionately into the unknown.
We can’t live in the past; the 1950’s will never exist again and as a Church we need to move on and change in a way that allows us to impact and change this generation for God. I feel that the Spirit of God has started the winds of change blowing across the hearts of those that are seeking His heart. Are we going to change willingly and joyfully; expecting God to move in and through us?
posted by Tera Yakel | 10:00 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home