I tend to use the seasons as a means of measuring aspects of churches health - partly because we love talking about the weather as Brits and everyone can readily associate with the ideas. If we talk about being in winter when it comes to our relationships with those beyond the church in our community everyone quickly gets the idea, for example, but people are also encouraged by the fact we have to pass through winter to get to spring if we're in the autumn of nostalgia - looking back on a previously good summer (here the memory has to kick in).
Anyway, reading about how different animals adapt to seasonal change recently, I was struck by how churches very rarely seem to think there needs to be any change depending on the season.
It gets very cold in winter in eastern Canada, and geese and many other animals anticipate the weather and migrate. But wolves stay put, thanks to some remarkable adaptations enabling them to cope with temperatures from -30 C in the depths of winter to possibly 20 C plus in the summer. The wolf's coat ranges from white in cold weather, to red or black in hot weather and greyish in normal weather. The thing which strikes me, wether you stay or move, you have to adapt, you need a survival strategy, which means change according to the environment you're in.
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Change! As the old joke about how many Baptists it takes to change a lightbulb says.... I guess most of us struggle with change from time to time but as we all know God doesn't ask us to stay still but to press on towards the goal. I figure my life is about to change - role on the summer!
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