Change

Change just for the sake of change is not a good thing, but that doesn't mean change is bad. Rapidly changing circumstances require changes in approach and even in plans. There's no shortage of change in a church plant.

We've changed locations three times (four if you count moving out of my house), changed the people who speak, changed what we load, how we load and where we load it, changed the set up, changed our print stuff, changed our sound board, speakers, band members and singers. We've even changed over a few staff in the 15 months we've been at this thing. And there's been no shortage of date changes.

So I've decided not to get too frustrated when we try to let our people know something ahead of time, only to get new information that changes everything. For instance, over the past couple of months that we've been at the Boys and Girls Club we've been able to set up on Saturday night. We've made our stage, curtains, sound and everything else available to the BGC and the people who rent space from them as long as we have a bit of advance notice. So this weekend, we were told there was going to be a wedding reception and that it'd be done late on Saturday. Of course we offered to set up and hadn't heard anything in a couple of weeks.

So yesterday we send out an email to our PARTners and regular attendees asking them to help set up on Sunday morning bright and early (7AM). About five hours later I get a call. The BGC and wedding party would like stuff set up on Friday night so they can decorate for the reception that's on Saturday. And everything will be done by 6:30PM! That's when we'd normally set up.

Oh well, I'll just need to call the generous people who've responded that they'll come help on Sunday and let them know that plans have changed. And I'm ok with that. God does that sometimes. That's how I ended up planting a church. It's how I ended up in Greenville. It's how Claude got here. Same with Randy and Laci. Plans changed, and so far, that's been a good thing.