Changing the Way I Think

It may seem like a small thing, and it probably is, but I'm writing this as a blog first, and then will use it as my article for our monthly district newsletter. It's part of the transition that I am trying to make from my previous way of thinking to a new way of thinking and acting.

For the past 30 years, as a pastor my mind has been geared around writing an article for the monthly printed newsletter. In my previous church, the printed newsletter was eventually also sent out through email. It was a long and at times difficult process to make the transition from a primarily paper product that was delivered through the mail to an electronic version that was sent over the internet.
But even though it was sent by email, the format was still based on the old paper printed document.

So when I started a blog last year, I thought that I could write the monthly newsletter article and then use it for my blog as well. But that was still a way of thinking that was based on the previous mindset of a monthly time frame for communications.  The reality now is that communication happens practically instantaneously.

By thinking about the blog first, and then the newsletter, I'm hoping to continue to shift my attention and energy to a new way of thinking and acting. I know this is such a small change, but I hope it is a step in the right direction. I'm getting used to Facebook and Twitter and found them to be great ways to connect with people but they have also been a source of information overload.

I'll confess that change doesn't come easy for me and is not something that I necessarily want to do. But then again, it's not about what I want. It's about what God wants. In fact, the basic change of mindset that challenged Jesus was a change from want he wanted to what God wanted.  When Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness to get ready to start his mission, he had to wrestle with putting God's plan over his own preference and comfort. This was a challenge that continued to his final days on earth when he struggled in the garden to pray to God, "Not my will, but yours be done."

I know that when you consider all of the issues in the world, this seems so trivial.  But even small changes in direction can result in huge differences over time. This is one small way I want to model what I hope to see in the churches of the northwest district of Iowa. I know that many of them struggle with similar challenges of keeping up with a changing world.  To develop relationships with people today, we have to be able to speak their language and meet in the places where they live. And that includes being online.  Changing the way I think is a challenge, but if it helps to connect with people, then I'm going to keep trying.