Why bother to change?
Like it or not, change is something we all live with. But sometimes we need to step back and ask the question, “Is it worth it?”. This issue’s topic was triggered by three items of news in the past 24 hours, each featuring change issues.
The National Trust is currently undergoing some significant change, and there is more on the way. The changes are largely driven by financial concerns as restrictions because of Covid-19 has had a major impact on the Trust’s income. That sounds like a good reason to change, and one that many organisations are facing. But National Trust is also re-thinking who they are, what they do and why they do that.
In a recent press release Hilary McGrady, the Director General stated “in future, visitors will play a greater part in bringing the places we care for to life, adding: ‘Our nations’ beautiful places are not only for looking at, but for singing and dancing and reading, learning, cooking, crafting and creating in. And they belong to everyone.,” Having seen the tragedy of change driven solely by financial reasons, I like the fresh thinking the National Trust is showing. They may well be enhancing their core mission through the process of change.
The second news story is about ‘Question of Sport’, which has reached the age of 50 and recently celebrated this with a programme looking back over those years. QS is the most popular TV quiz programme attracting a large audience and a queue of sports personalities who consider being on QS almost as great as winning gold in the Olympics! Looking at the archives, it is clear that the programme has never changed some basic aspects, while it has made regular changes to keep the audience engaged. One thing that has remained constant is the fun being enjoyed by the panelists and the studio audience.
My late wife and I have both been avid fans of QS despite knowing little about sport. In fact, I can only remember being able to answer two questions over the years. What has drawn us is seeing experts risk their reputations and still be able to laugh at themselves. It is about people having good clean fun. What QS has achieved is being able to hold onto the “Why” of what they do while making periodic changes to “How” they communicate the answer to that question.
The third news story is very different. It is that young women in their twenties are paying large sums of money to have unnecessary elective beauty treatments such as facial botox injections. Apparently, one of the factors driving this trend to change in how young women look, is the amount of time they are spending using Zoom on laptops. Staring at their faces and those of their friends is causing them to see almost imperceptible signs of aging. Desperate to stay looking young they are handing over thousands of pounds for treatment that might have only marginal benefits and carry risks.
While the Bible has little to say on the subject of this kind of change (other than the beauty treatment experienced by Esther), these stories have much to say about how we relate our faith to the world around us. Looking in from the outside, who we are as ‘church’ and how we do church has often remained unchanged over decades. Some will argue that this is a good thing. But let’s ask that question again, “Why bother to change?”
Both the National Trust and Question of Sport are concerned about what their ‘customers’ get out of the experience of visiting or watching. Both are concerned about enjoyment. But there is nothing more enjoyable than a living relationship with God, whose unchanging nature means that he is always constantly relevant and wonderful to know. Surely church should be about expressing that wonder and enjoyment. Why then does it not look like that in many of our churches?
If church looks and sounds old fashioned, dull and unattractive then our witness for Christ could do with some fresh thinking. It is not ‘change for change sake’. This is about change for the sake of Jesus Christ and the sake of those he longs to draw to himself. We should not change our basic values, but we are not doing God any favours when in church we always do it the same old way that seems to have stopped being attractive around 100 years ago.
The parables of National Trust and Question of Sport are about change that enables the reason for their existence to remain contemporary, just as God remains unchanging yet always contemporary. The parable of young women using botox is about the foolishness of trying to stop time and change from happening. God is in the business of change and what the world around us (family, friends and neighbours) should see is not an expression of our faith frozen in time as if by botox, but changing from one kind of glory into another that is more glorious (2 Corinthians 4:17,18).
That is why we should bother.
Barry osborne 22/08/2020
