CHANGE PLEASE!

Good morning everyone I will be talking about Change today. Pastor Troy Gramling said something that sticks out to me and I would like to share it with you. Change is in the air and happening at record speeds. Many of the changes we face are not within our control, as we have learned in many situations, but how we respond to change can be controlled. This is so true. I like the way Twyman L. Towery compares the stages of change to the stages of grief: DENIAL: Our first reaction is to deny, rather than adapt to and embrace, the change in our life. ANGER: Once we realize we cannot stop the change we become angry that it is outside of our control. If we do not understand where the anger is coming from, we can mistakenly hurt the people we perceive to be initiating the change. BARGAINING: This is an attempt to avoid change by bargaining it away. EXPLORATION: We begin to except that there is going to be change and explore ways to deal with the change. Depression can become a reality during this stage as we give up being able to control the circumstances. COMMITMENT: We except and embrace the change. We begin to see some possible benefits of the change. When I read this it rocked my world. I started thinking about this same mindset people have on Change inside the church. I hear so many people in church talk about other churches and what they are doing! It goes like this: “Did you here what "such and such"church is doing? I can’t believe they are doing that!” It bothers me to hear people focusing so much on other churches, they end up forgetting their on vision for there church. Let’s face it the same things that worked 10 years ago will not work today! We serve a creative God If you don’t think so then look outside. Better yet look at your spouse and your kids! It’s time the church in America gets with it and makes some huge changes. Do not change your church vision, just the way you present the Gospel of Jesus Christ! Make it fun and fresh! We must reach the YOUTH! I believe with all my heart, that should be the focal point in the church! Not the Cemetery or the pointless picking of apples for the Senior Adults! If you just got offended good you needed it. Although Twyman L. Towery was talking about changes in our life. I believe some churches have this mindset about where they go to church. They don’t like change. They make it all about them and the Hell with the lost people! This is my opinion on change within churches, if the Pastor and Staff constantly seek Jesus Christ and put him first in everything Jesus is in control! Jesus said follow him! Are you following him? Does change bother you? Are you making all about you and not Jesus? I know this is a touchy subject and I am not downgrading churches or people. I am simply calling it like I see it! If you get mad great! If you don’t even better! Love You Guys Jason!

CHANGING LANES!

Everyone well almost everyone hates the word CHANGE! However CHANGE is not a bad thing. In our culture its sweeping a lot of people by! The world is constantly CHANGING but we as adults don't like to embrace it! Today I'm going to talk a little bit about CHANGE and how if we take the right steps toward CHANGE it can be one of the best things that we can ever embrace. First I am a firm believer that we will never become who God intends us to be by remaining what we are. It's not enough to be open to CHANGE, we need to pursue it. We should not CHANGE to just run from our problems-we should CHANGE enough to solve them. We should not CHANGE our circumstances to improve our life-we should CHANGE ourselves to improve our circumstances. Let's face it the same old things don't work like they used to. If we continue to turn to the same old things we should not expect great results-we should try something new and expect different results. Don't view CHANGE as something hurtful that must be done-see it as something helpful that can be done. In scripture we see James talk about this in the first chapter verses 3-4. "When your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing." Building our character is a slow process; it happens day by day not overnight. Whenever we try to escape the hard times in life we think we are shortening the process when we are actually prolonging it. It delays our growth and it always ends up hurting us worse if we ignore it. So be very open to CHANGE and be very willing to pursue it, CHANGE is a good thing!I Love You all, Jason