Change, Part 3

            I have just a little more I want to say about change.  I promise next time I’ll move on to something else.

            One thing we can be sure about is that, whenever a change is proposed, people will have opinions about it.  Some of those opinions will be favorable.  Some of them will be unfavorable.  Some people will not understand what’s going on or why.  Some people will be afraid of doing things differently.  Some people will be eager to make changes.  Some people will see change as the solution to our problems.

            None of these opinions is necessarily right or wrong.  The point is that everyone is going to have an opinion.  That’s a good thing, especially when it comes to the church.  Each of us should have an opinion about what’s going on in the church.  If we didn’t have an opinion, it would mean we don’t care, and that would be a bad situation to be in.

            The important thing, when we have an opinion about what’s going on in the church, is that we don’t keep those opinions to ourselves.  We need to talk to people.  We especially need to talk to the people who are in a position to do something about the situation.  Talk to me.  Talk to the people on the church council.  Talk to the lay leader.  Talk to the people on the relevant committee.

            Sometimes, people get the impression that their opinion doesn’t count.  That’s not true.  Your opinion does count, but it only counts if the people who have been entrusted with making decisions know what your opinion is.  Those people can only know what your opinion is if you tell them.  It would be nice if they taught a seminary course on mind-reading, but they don’t.  They don’t have that course for people on church boards or committees, either.  The only way for the people entrusted with making decisions to know your opinion is for you to tell them.

            Those people want to know your opinion.  No one wants to do something in the church if the people of the church don’t support it.  It won’t work that way.  For the things the church does to succeed, we need to move forward together.

            We won’t always have unanimous agreement on everything, of course.  Nor should we.  There’s an old saying that if everybody’s thinking alike, somebody’s not thinking.  We need to hear from a lot of people with a lot of viewpoints.  That’s the way the best decisions are made.  We need to be respectful in our disagreements, recognizing that others want what’s best just as much as we do, but we still need to be willing to state those disagreements and not sweep them under the rug.

            The fact that each opinion counts, though, does not mean that each opinion will be followed.  That’s not possible.  It would be wonderful if everything could be compromised so that we all felt we were getting our way, but it’s not possible.  Sometimes we have to make choices.  We can either do A, or we can do B, but we can’t do both.  Or, sometimes we’re choosing between doing A or not doing A.  If you believe one way, and a decision is made to go another way, that doesn’t mean that your opinion didn’t count.  It just means that a different decision was made.

            It’s good when we have opinions, and it’s good when we make our opinions known.  At the end of the day, though, each of us needs to remember that the church is not about what any individual wants.  The church is about doing God’s will.  Once a decision is made, even if it didn’t go the way we thought it should, we need to get behind it and help the church move forward.  If the church is doing something we were skeptical about, we need to do all we can to prove our own skepticism wrong and help the church succeed.

            Everyone involved in the Wheatland Parish wants what’s best for the church.  If we remember that, if we pray, and if we resolve to stay united, we can handle whatever changes may come our way.  Then, we can move forward to make this parish the parish God wants it to be.