1. Recognize that churches are always in a state of change if they are alive. Every time someone joins your church or leaves it, the church changes. Every time a member begins to get serious about reading the Word or witnessing or tithing or ministering, or when they backslide, the church changes.  It is never static, never a frozen entity.

2. You yourself are growing and changing if you are alive and obedient. I grew up on a certain kind of church music, then grew past that.  Later, my tastes changed and to no one's surprise, have changed again.

3. Your needs and requirements change. My tastes change. It's called "life." After radiation treatment of the head and neck a full decade ago, many things no longer have a taste at all, while others are as wonderful as ever. I can handle spicy food better than before since I have fewer functioning taste buds. Life is like that.

4. Perhaps you are dragging your feet and resisting something new the Holy Spirit is trying to do in your life. You are if you insist that the Lord do something again in the same way He did it before. You are dragging your feet and resisting Him if you reject the new things He sends because they are outside your comfort zone. Do you suppose Jonah felt comfortable going to Nineveh? Don't you know it was way, way outside his comfort zone?

5. Perhaps the Lord has something new for you in the community, and you should be in another church. This may be His way of cutting you loose from those ties that have bound you so you can move forward.

6. Are you open to new things? New ways? If you are not, you're going to have trouble with the Lord Jesus.

"Behold," the Lord said, "I make all things new" (Rev. 21:5). He wasn't just talking about Heaven, friend.

He's making me ever-new right now. Yep, I said that. Psalm 92:12-15 promises that. "The righteous will flourish ... They will still bear fruit in old age. They will be full of sap and very green ... "

So, what do you do when your church changes? Grow with it.

Dr. Joe McKeever writes from the vantage point of more than 60 years as a disciple of Jesus, more than 50 years preaching His gospel, and more than 40 years of cartooning for every imaginable Christian publication.

For the original article, visit joemckeever.com.

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