Being Led Out 2

New churches can be exciting. They are doing all the new and interesting work. It's extremely challenging and an incredible roller-coaster ride - always changing.

Revitalizing existing congregations is harder work. People are stuck. They get set in their ways. It is tough sledding as some would say.

Loren Mead, from the Alban Institue, in his book Changing Pastors suggests that the greatest opportunity for change in a church is when the pastor leaves. It is the time when a congregation has the most freedom to examine itself and to embrace a new direction. It is the primary moment when a congregation can assume a new identity or reclaim an old one and embrace the journey ahead. When a pastor leaves is the time a church can get "unstuck" and is open to the injection of new and challenging directions.

Just a note. It is the same for the pastor.