People hurt for their preferences when there's change. But part of the role of pastors and church leaders is to help people hurt for the right things. When people don't get things their way, it hurts them. That shouldn't surprise you. But, instead, leaders have to help them hurt for the things that break the heart of God.
Change can come, but it will come by the way of pain.
I often use my shoes as an example. I hate buying new shoes. My feet are shaped weird and it takes awhile to break in a new pair. Bones on the side of my feet rub against the new shoe, giving me blisters for three weeks until it has worn down in the right areas. So, I just don't buy new shoes unless things become unbearable.
I wear my shoes until the soles have holes in them. I'll keep ignoring the ever-growing hole because it's not bad enough for me to endure the way my feet hurt in new shoes. Then winter comes and everything changes. Walking around Nashville on a day that's colder than a legalist's heart, I'll step into a barely above freezing puddle of water. It will shoot up between my toes, into my sock, and sit there. Now, I'm finally thinking, "I've got to change!"
Here's the principle: people never change until the pain of staying the same becomes greater than the pain of change.
That's why there can't be change without pain.Read the rest.
Books by Ed Stetzer:
- Planting Missional Churches
- Compelled: Living the Mission of God
- Subversive Kingdom: Living as Agents of Gospel Transformation
- Transformational Church: Creating a New Scorecard for Congregations
- Lost and Found: The Younger Unchurched and the Churches that Reach Them
- Comeback Churches: How 300 Churches Turned Around and Yours Can, Too
- Breaking the Missional Code: Your Church Can Become a Missionary in Your Community
- Viral Churches: Helping Church Planters Become Movement Makers (Jossey-Bass Leadership Network Series)
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