Changes

There’s an old joke – maybe you have heard it. 

Q: How many church members does it take to change a light bulb? 

A: Change the light bulb? My grandmother donated that light bulb!

We laugh because it can be true – oftentimes we can grow used to things being a certain way for so long that we are resistant to change. 

Open Door is going through some changes right now. 

This October 1st it will be two years since I became the solo pastor at Open Door. During that time we have grown some, and some folks that had left have come back, and the reality is that we are no longer the same church we were when I was installed. 

And every so often, we have to look at things we have held onto for a long time and ask if they are still serving us. 

So right now, we are in the process of changing some things to meet our current realities. 

Like how we make decisions. In the past, we had a team of leaders who made those decisions on behalf of the congregation. But we decided that wasn’t in keeping with who we are, so we are moving to a congregational model, where the members of the congregation will decide what is best for the congregation. 

This means that soon, we will announce a schedule of regular congregational meetings. It also means that if there is something you don’t like at Open Door, you have the power to influence how we do it, and to even advocate for something different.

Of course, this sort of change in polity (that’s a fancy word for church government) means we have to change our bylaws – sort of like the constitution of the congregation. We did that years and years ago, but lIke I said, we have changed a lot, and the old bylaws no longer fit us. 

This is actually a very Mennonite path. We take Jesus’ telling the disciples that governance in the community is their responsibility (Matthew 18) seriously. We also believe in the priesthood of all believers – as pastor I am not somehow more of anything than you are – rather, we are whatever we are together. And finally, we believe that God’s voice is most clearly heard in community. 

So this is an opportunity for us to decide, yet again, what sort of church we are, and how we want to demonstrate the reality of God’s love to a world that has legitimate reason to doubt that love. 

And we will do that work together.