So often when we deal with people who become less active in the life of a congregation, our approach is how they are letting the church down and how much we miss them. All that may be true, but we sometimes miss the fact that they are letting themselves down. Living in a consumer culture, people often see church as an add-on, something that they hope will enjoy if they go. But biblically, the Church is the Body of Christ, not an institution. If you take away a part of the body, it is the detached limb that suffers the most. We are nourished, encouraged, enriched and strengthened by our connections with the gathering of believers. We can't just think in terms of loss of offerings or attendance figures. The real critical issue is the potential deterioration of someone's spiritual vitality.

Recently I read a church leader's explanation of why people resist change that made a lot of sense. He said, "People are not so much afraid of changes as they are of being changed." People are actually rather adept at adjusting to changes. They do it every day. But when it is in an area of their life like church, change has a greater chance of actually changing them. Maybe in addition to trying to just figure out smooth ways of helping people transition we need to be evaluating what the personal changes are that they represent.

I find it interesting that so often we continue to make church life more complex by adding programs and structure and yet seem surprised that church life is hard. It probably needs to be the opposite. Research is indicating that the most effective churches are the ones who have a simple path for people to follow and only plan things that advance their mission. But, they know that church life (and the life of faith) is hard. What did we think Jesus meant when he said it was "the narrow way?"

In watching the winter Olympics, I have seen story after story of how the athletes had a dream, what they did in preparation and their readiness to compete. It strikes me that we often put this behavior in the category as "this is for the elite." But at some level we're all called to this kind of model in the practice of being a Christian. We suffer from lack of a definition of what it means to be a Christ-follower, a lack of awareness of what the stakes are, and a lack of willingness to discipline ourselves for the journey. What if we approached the Christian life like an Olympic athlete?

We have had the joy of working with a number of churches in a 6 state area for the last year. What continues to amaze me is two things: how much resistance churches experience when they try to transform their ministries and the bravery of those who continue to pursue.

What is the most powerful resistance your church experiences?