In Antioch these evangelists 'jumped the culture barrier' and for the first time reached out to Gentiles. This had been done 'accidentally' a couple of times before (Phillip to the Samaritans, Acts 8, Peter to Cornelius, Acts 10), but now this Gentile outreach was intentional. They were prepared to do something that had not been done before! When a church is hog-tied to precedent ('we've not done it that way before!') prepare for that church's funeral!

Cotton farmers in southern Alabama suffered two years' devastating losses thanks to the boll weevil. Some then tried a radically new idea, something they hadn't done before: they planted peanuts. It worked! They prospered, and later erected a monument to the boll weevil!

There's an interesting text in the Living Bible version of Proverbs 13:19: 'It is pleasant to see plans develop. That is why fools refuse to give them up even when they are wrong'!

Now tradition is important: it links us with our past, and provides guidelines for the present. Community, church and family traditions build group cohesion and security. Sociologists tell us family routines such as 'grace' before meals, bedtime prayers with children, Christmas and birthday celebrations provide the 'glue' linking happy, memorable events together. Churches similarly have liturgical cycles and 'high days', as they celebrate what God has done in their history. 'Remember when....?' gives life meaning. Don't let hippies (who only have a 'present') or idealists (who only have a future) deprive you of your past!

But don't be a pain-in-the-neck nostalgic either. (They get a pain in the neck from constantly looking backwards). For a mature individual or group tradition is servant, not master. The present is not altogether to be interpreted by what has gone before. We must not be in bondage to a 'this is the only way we do it around here' kind of immaturity. G B Shaw used to talk about people who were 'dead at 30 and buried at 60'! For a mature person there is security in risk-taking. In a life without risks no one wins, no one loses, and no one learns! Remember the lobster, which at a certain point in its life discards its outer protective shell and then becomes vulnerable to its enemies. Later it will grow a new 'house'. So become vulnerable! Encourage the young to see visions and the old to dream dreams.

Greek philosophers asked one another what element in life we could be most certain of, and they answered 'change'. The only constant thing is change, and for a follower of the dynamic Christ all of life must be seen as a process of growth. To be absolutely conservative is to deny the possibility of growth, and reality's being a moving, flowing process.

Probably 10-20% of your people will never change; at the other end are 'early adopters' - also 10-20%. The 'reluctant majority' will go along with change when they see its benefits outweigh the cost. There are three stages in the change process: resistance, tolerance, then approval. People must be given reasons for change: they must understand these reasons and see value in them.

Change is always experienced as loss, but it's not change that's the big problem for most people - it's change they can't control, or that comes too quickly ('future shock'). This is why a good change agent will be consultative, allowing people to own the changes, exposing them to successful working models (visit other churches, attend seminars, read papers or books) and will encourage experimental periods to test new ideas. Such a leader with both 'rule with a strong arm' but also 'gently lead' others (cf. Isaiah 40:10,11). Don't be in too great a hurry: make haste slowly. Sure, the Father created lots of things with a word; but the Son became one of us and lived among us, which took much longer! And all change must be bathed in prayer.

In an American basketball stadium hangs a large banner: 'IT CAN HAPPEN HERE!' It can happen in your life, in your church!

Further Reading: Lyle Schaller, The Change Agent, Gerard Egan, Change Agent Skills in Helping and Human Service Settings, Monterey, California: Brooks/Cole, Denis Waitley, Seeds of Greatness: The Ten Best-Kept Secrets of Total Success, New Jersey: Revell, 1983