Change Agents

Being a change agent is risky business. You never know when you have moved too fast or too far until you look back and notice that there is no one with you.

I will probably be guilty of moving too fast and too far for many of my brethren; but I am willing to take the risk for the sake of necessary change.

For too long we have all endured the reading of associational reports that somehow sound very similar to reports a year ago. During this time of the year many local associations are meeting and you can almost guarantee that the same thing will be done like it was last year and the year before. Believe it or not, some of the exact same reports will be repeated word for word from last year's minute book because there was not enough initiative on the part of someone to at least change a few words. Associational reports, in my opinion, are nothing more than a miserable reminder that there was nothing to report in the first place.

Just in case you are being severely offended by the above statements let me assure you that the giving of reports has its place. Simply place the written reports on the table for easy access to all the messengers so that they may choose or not choose to have a report. Then use the time normally given to the reading and discussing of reports to a meaningful seminar on church planting, pastoral needs, leadership development, encouragement and exhortation, and etc.

Would someone take the risk of proposing such a change? Here is my guess; most will be afraid to make such a change because historically we have always done it that way. How about someone making history and saying, 'enough is enough'. It maybe that your local association is not like that, if not, let me know about it. Maybe others would love to find out about it also.

What is really sad is that our national association is also filled with what seems endless reporting and duplicity using up much valuable time. It seems to me that the time invested by our missions committee at the ABA and other State associations is totally undone in subsequent sessions nearly every time. Either the missions committee recommendations need to be accepted as recommended or it (the committee) ought to be dismissed completely since what they have recommended is ignored most of the time anyways. One or the other, right?

It has been said, "Deal with things the way they are and not the way they ought to be"; I would like to add "...until you can change them to become what they ought to be." Let's be change agents.
David