Layers of Transition

by Dan Christian

Some people thrive on newness and change. 

Others thrive on constancy and stability.

Transition is exciting for some—there is a thrill in shaking things up a bit. It keeps life interesting.

Transition is stressful for others—there is peace in living with thought-out routines. It keeps life predictable. 

No matter where you land on the spectrum of thriving in transition to stressing in transition, the reality is that all of us have been walking through multiple layers of change in the past two years. As a church family, we entered into a senior pastor transition when Pastor Cory retired and God provided Pastor Rocky to shepherd our church. Less than a year into that transition, COVID-19 hit and our church moved suddenly and unexpectedly into another major change: cancellation of all church functions and worship services via livestream from our homes. In the midst of the pandemic quarantine, we experienced several changes in our staff team, both in saying farewell to staff and welcoming new staff, as well as transitions of roles between pastors. There have been multiple changes of worship service format and location, from livestream only to inside to outside and now back inside. And along with those changes are coming changes in the look and feel of the worship service. 

So for some of us, this is a super exciting time because so much is new and changing, and the transitions are breathing fresh life and enthusiasm into our souls. But for others of us, this is a very painful or difficult time because people and routines we have counted on are no longer in place, and the multiple layers of constant transition are draining our souls.

If you were a part of our church in the fall of 2018, you probably remember going through a study on transition, which was both a sermon series and an accompanying small group Bible study series. In that study, we looked at transition through the biblical lens of a trial, as something that tests our faith as we learn to trust God in deeper ways. We looked at transition as an opportunity for transformation, as we learn to walk more closely with God in a season of change. And we looked at how we can train our hearts to respond to God in the midst of all that is uncomfortable about transition. 

Those truths we studied could be summarized in this statement: In the trial of transition, we train our hearts to trust in God as He brings transformation in us.

We had no idea in 2018 that there would be all these additional layers of transition that we would be facing, yet here we are. So once again we are faced with the opportunity to continue the training of our hearts, that our trust in God would be deepened through the testing of all these trials. 

If you were a part of the Transformational Transitions study, perhaps now would be a good time to dust off those study books and review the things that you learned. And if you weren’t a part of that study, you can still benefit from it. The books have now been edited to apply to a general audience (i.e. those who are not part of the Evergreen SGV church family), and are available for purchase on amazon.com. So if you are wrestling with transition—whether the layers of transition happening in our church family, or a transition you are walking through personally—pick up a copy of the Leader’s Manual and pull a few others together to walk through the study with one another. All the study notes are in the Leader’s Manual, so you could learn a lot simply from reading through it, but it is best experienced as a small group study with others, and there is a Participant’s Guide to help facilitate that. 

May God be your refuge and strength, your very present help in trouble (Psalm 46:1) as you walk through all the layers of this transition time.